I)  u 


CHRISTIANITY 
&  CIVILIZATION 

THE  SOUTH  PACIFIC 


W.  ALLEN  YOUNG 


HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

NDON  EDINBURGH  GLASGOW  COPENHAGEN 
NEW  YORK  TORONTO  MELBOURNE  CAPE  TOWN 
BOMBAY       CALCUTTA       MADRAS      SHANGHAI       PBKIN 


Christianity  and  Civilization 
in  the  South  Pacific 

The  influence  of  missionaries  upon  European 

expansion  in  the  Pacific  during  the 

S^neteenth  Century 

[The  Robert  Herbert  Memorial  Prize  Essay 
1920) 

BY 

W.  ALLEN  YOUNG 


HUMPHREY  MILFORD 
OXFORD    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

LONDON  EDINBURGH  GLASGOW  COPENHAGEN 
NEW  YORK  TORONTO  MELBOURNE  CAPE  TOWN 
BOMBAY      CALCUTTA       MADRAS       SHANGHAI        PEKIN 

1922 


-(1 


Printed  m  Great  Britain 
ijf  Turnbull  &*  Shears,  Edinburgh 


TO 
MY  WIFE 


50u3;>7 


Y 


CONTENTS 

Foreword 

PART  I 
A  General  Survey 

PART  II 
British  New  Guinea — 

CHAP. 

I.  Exploration 

II.  The  Annexation  Controversy 

III.  Peacemaking 

IV.  The  Labour  Traffic 

V.  "New  Guinea  for  the  New  Guineans  " 

VI.  "The  New  Guineans  for  New  Guinea" 

PART  III 
Conclusion .125 

Bibliography 100 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2008  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/cliristianityciviOOyounricli 


FOREWORD 

The  subject  of  this  essay  is  so  wide  that  the  writer  has 
found  himself  compelled  to  limit  the  field  of  his  inquiry 
in  two  directions. 

First,  this  essay  will  deal  only  with  the  British 
missionaries,  but  there  is  justification  for  this  besides 
the  necessity  of  brevity.  For  it  was  the  British  mis- 
sionaries whose  influence  upon  European  expansion  was 
most  marked,  since  they  attempted,  and  in  part  suc- 
ceeded, in  directing  it  along  channels  consistent  with 
their  faith  ;  while  the  initiative  of  the  French  and  of 
the  German  missionaries  was  curbed  by  their  respective 
states,  upon  whom  they  were  more  dependent  for  pro- 
tection and  upon  whose  poHcy  therefore  they  had  less 
effect. 

Secondly,  this  essay  will  not  attempt  to  treat  inten- 
sively the  whole  field  of  British  missionary  work.  The 
writer  has  confined  himself  to  pointing  out  certain  land- 
marks in  a  short  general  survey,  and  afterwards  to 
looking  at  the  history  of  British  New  Guinea  in  rather 
more  detail,  since  it  provides  the  most  vivid  illustration 
of  his  argument. 

The  following  brief  summary  of  that  argument  may 
help  the  reader  in  following  the  writer's  rapid  glances 
at  the  history  of  islands  which  are  dotted  in  a  curious 
and  untidy  profusion  over  an  ocean  covering  about  one 
third  of  the  earth's  surface. 

I.  The  history  of  the  Pacific  in  the  nineteenth  century 


S  FOREWORD 

is  remarkable  for  the  appearance  of  a  new  ideal  in  the 
theory  of  colonization,  namely,  the  protection  and  the 
development  of  the  native  races  as  a  duty  of  the  expanding 
race,  whose  best  interest,  however,  is  boimd  up  with  the 
performance  of  it. 

2.  The  British  missionaries  were  the  sponsors  of  this 
ideal ;  and  by  their  own  organization  and  work,  and  by 
the  direct  influence  they  exerted  upon  the  government 
at  home,  and  upon  those  in  the  colonies,  and  upon  the 
administrators  in  the  Pacific,  they  were  able  to  mould 
pohcy  in  conformity  with  this  ideal. 

3.  They  were  able  to  do  this  more  completely  in  New 
Guinea  than  elsewhere,  because  here  their  methods  were 
more  in  harmony  with  their  ideal,  and  the  territory  was 
fortunate  in  having  administrators  who  realized  the  value 
of  their  assistance,  and  made  full  use  of  it. 

British  New  Guinea  received  its  present  official  name 
"  Papua  "  in  1906,  but  I  have  retained  the  name  by  which 
the  territory  was  known  during  the  period  under  review. 

I  am  much  indebted  to  Mr  Evans  Lewin,  the  Librarian 
of  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute,  and  to  Mr  J.  Pike,  the 
Assistant-Librarian,  for  their  invaluable  help  in  research. 

My  gratitude  is  also  due  to  Mr  George  Johnson  for 
information  upon  German  pohcy ;  to  Sir  George  R. 
Le  Hunte,  G.C.M.G.,  for  his  commentary  upon  the 
more  recent  history  of  Missionary  work  in  Papua ;  to 
Mr  David  Chamberlin  of  the  London  Missionary  Society 
for  kindly  revising  the  proofs  ;  and  to  Mr  J.  C.  Masterman 
of  Christchurch  for  his  unfailing  sympathy  and  en- 
couragement. 

W.  A.  Y. 

Christchurch 

Oxford 

1921 


PART   I 

A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

"  The  dervishes  asked  me  : — 

•  Whom  you  think  a  rare  man  that  you  have  met  in  your  life  ? 

*  A  man  without  a  right  ideal.' 

"  They  asked  again  : — 

'  And  whom  you  think  a  still  rarer  man  ?  ' 
'  A  man  without  a  wrong  method.'  " 

R,  A.  Vran-Gavran, 
The  New  Age,  April  4,  191 8. 

Today  there  are  many  who  are  returning  anxiously  to 
a  study  of  Western  civilization  in  the  hght  of  its  recent 
failure.  The  acquisitive  instinct,  which  has  been  a 
mainspring  in  the  development  of  both  individuals  and 
of  groups,  has  resulted  in  a  war  which  has  menaced  the 
existence  of  the  civiUzation  the  same  instinct  has  helped 
to  produce.  The  complicated  framework  of  Western 
society,  which  has  hitherto  stood,  and  grown,  by  means 
of  a  dehcate  adjustment  of  human  relationships  based 
upon  rights,  rather  than  duties,  appears  to  be  tottering. 
Those  who  notice  and  deplore  the  divorce  to-day  between 
religion  and  pohtics,  and  between  ideals  and  methods, 
are  looking  despairingly  to  the  recent  past  for  a  sign 
of  a  new  pohtical  principle,  which  might  be  used  to 
repair  and  gradually  to  rebuild  the  civi.hzation  of  the 
West. 

For  such  gloomy  thoughts,  a  study  of  the  history  of  the 
Pacific  during  the  nineteenth  century  is  a  good  antidote. 
The  value  of  a  civilization  is  judged  best  in  its  relation  to 


10  '  •••       A*  GENERAL  SURVEY 

other's;  kiid  it 'is- in  the  impaet  of  the  West  upon  the  races 
of  the  Pacific  during  the  nineteenth  century,  that  there 
appears  a  new  ideal  in  Western  political  thought.  For  in 
spite  of  grave  blots  upon  this  page  of  history,  the  leaders 
in  colonizing  theory  no  longer  accepted  the  view  that  the 
colonizing  race  had  a  right  to  demand  from  the  savage 
race  submission,  and  labour,  and  wealth,  but  underUned 
the  record  upon  this  page  with  a  new  principle,  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  colonizing  race  to  serve  the  interests  of 
the  native  inhabitants  by  protecting  and  educating  them. 
And  the  very  blots  emphasized  this,  for  these  leaders 
opened  the  eyes  of  Europeans  to  the  recognition  that 
the  record  was  marred,  and  not  decorated,  by  these  blots. 

The  leaders  who  did  this  were  the  British  missionaries. 
To  appreciate  rightly  the  significance  of  the  part  they 
played  in  European  expansion  during  this  century  how- 
ever, it  is  necessary  to  glance  at  the  characteristics  of 
that  expansion  in  the  previous  centuries. 

The  history  of  European  expansion  in  the  Pacific 
divides  roughly  into  three  periods.  The  first  starts 
at  about  the  time  of  the  Papal  Bull  of  1493  ^  when, 
worse  than  a  divorce  between  religion  and  politics, 
religion  lost  its  identity  in  the  ambitions  of  kings. 
The  second  starts  in  1577,  when  Drake  sailed  forth 
in  defiance  of  the  religious  imperiaHsm  of  Spain,  and 
it  is  marked  by  the  absence  of  a  religious  motive, 
and  by  the  predominance  of  the  commercial  motive. 
But  in  1795  the  third  period  begins  with  the  founding 
of  the  London  Missionary  Society.  This  Society,  and 
other  similar  societies,  breathed  a  new  hfe  into  theories 

1  In  a  Bull  dated  May  4th,  1493,  Pope  Alexander  VI.  divided  the 
new  world  between  the  kings  of  Portugal  and  Spain  prohibiting  any 
others,  "  although  of  Imperial  and  regal  dignity,"  from  trading  or 
travelling  "without  special  licence"  of  tli^na ,"  under  the  pain  of  the 
sentence  of  excommunication." 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  il 

of  colonial  statesmanship,  and  its  members  preached 
successfully  a  forgotten  ideal,  moulding  the  policy  of 
an  expanding  state  by  the  force  of  their  religious 
convictions. 

During  the  first  period,  the  Church,  the  State,  and 
the  adventurers — the  servants  of  the  State — all  took  a 
political  view  of  rehgion.  This  was  the  time  of  the 
ascendancy  of  Spain  and  of  Portugal,  and  of  the  menace 
to  England  of  Catholic  ImperiaUsm,  already  straddling 
across  Europe,  and  now  stretching  out  greedy  hands  to 
the  New  World  as  well. 

For  a  time  those  Imperial  and  Papist  hands  were 
active  in  converting  the  savage  inhabitants  of  the  new 
lands  to  Christianity,  by  sending  them  to  heaven  to  taste 
its  sweetness.  And  from  their  dead  bodies  and  their 
outraged  lands  they  took  gold,  and  silver,  and  precious 
stones  for  the  glory  of  Cathohc  altars. 

"These  discoverers,"  writes  Mr  J.  D.  Rogers,  in  an 
illuminating  summary  of  the  period,  "  were  one  and  all 
state  servants  saiHng  in  state  ships,  cross  in  one  hand 
and  sword  in  the  other,  to  enter  on  the  government  of 
some  kingdom  and  receive  tribute  from  it."  ^ 

The  friars  who  went  with  them  —  the  missionaries 
of  that  time — were  state  servants  also,  and  acted  under 
the  orders  of  the  commander  of  the  expedition.  Members 
of  a  Church  still  under  the  Jewish  influence  upon 
Christiatiity,  having  still  the  magical  conception  of  God, 
as  a  hostile  Being  who  had  to  be  appeased  by  rites, 
and  by  the  slaying  of  His  enemies,  they  did  not,  however, 
hesitate  to  countenance  occasionally  the  sin  of  Saul, 
who  "  destroyed  all  the  people  with  the  edge  of  the 
sword  "  but  "  spared  .  .  .  the  best  of  the  sheep  and  of 

^  A  Historical  Geography  of  the  British  Colonies,  1907.  J.  D.  Rogers, 
vol.  vi.  p.  6. 


12  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

the  oxen  and  of  the  fatlings,  and  the  lambs,  and  all  that 
was  good."  1 

But  though  they  were  the  apostles  of  their  Church, 
they  had  less  influence  upon  the  manner  in  which 
Christianity  was  carried  to  these  heathen  lands  than 
the  navigators  and  the  soldiers.  And  they  acquiesced 
in  the  most  sacred  symbol  of  their  rehgion,  the  symbol 
of  sacrifice  and  of  love,  being  set  up  by  a  conqueror  as 
the  sign  of  his  triumph,  and  as  an  assertion  of  the  rights 
claimed  by  his  king  in  virtue  of  it.^  Also,  strangely 
enough,  some  years  after  the  Pope  had  first  struggled  to 
retain  his  supremacy  over  the  temporal  head  of  England, 
there  were  priests  with  Quiros  who  did  not  protest 
when  the  Blessed  Sacrament  was  preceded  in  procession 
by  the  banner  of  Spain. ^ 

*  I  Samuel  xv.  8,  g. 

"  Among  the  1200  warriors  sent  by  King  Emmanuel  to  follow  up  the 
discovery  of  Vasco  da  Gama  were  included  a  band  of  friars,  and  the 
commander  of  the  expedition  received  the  following  instructions  : 
*  Before  he  attacked  the  Moors  and  idolaters  of  those  parts  with  the 
material  and  secular  sword,  he  was  to  allow  the  priests  and  monks  to 
use  their  spiritual  sword,  which  was  to  declare  to  them  the  Gospel  .  .  . 
and  convert  them  to  the  faith  of  Christ.  .  .  .  And  should  they  be  so 
contumacious  as  not  to  accept  this  law  of  faith  .  .  .  and  should  they 
forbid  commerce  and  exchange  ...  in  that  case  they  should  put 
them  to  fire  and  sword,  and  carry  on  fierce  war  against  them.'  "  {The 
Project  of  a  Commonwealth,  191 5,  p.  131,  quoting  Hunter,  A  History 
of  British  India.) 

a  "  Magellan  '  set  up  at  the  top  of  the  highest  mountain  a  very  large 
cross  as  a  sign  that  this  country  belonged  to  the  King  of  Spain  .  .  .  and 
gave  to  the  mountain  the  name  of  the  Mount  of  Christ,'  made  rude 
chiefs  mumble  Aves,  Paternosters  and  Credos  like  parrots,  and  do 
homage  and  swear  fealty  to  the  King  of  Spain."     (Rogers,  loc.  cit.,  p.  7.) 

*  Quiros,  in  describing  to  the  King  of  Spain  his  occupation  of 
Espiritu  Santo,  wrote :  "  First,  Sir,  we  erected  a  cross  and  built  a  church, 
in  honour  of  Our  Lady  of  Loretto.  Then  we  caused  twenty  masses  to 
be  celebrated  there  .  .  .  and  made  a  solemn  procession  and  observed 
the  feast  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  the  which  was  carried  in  procession, 
your  banner  being  displayed  and  marching  before  it,  through  a  great 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  13 

The  subordinate  part  which  the  rehgious  motive 
played  in  European  expansion  during  this  first  period 
is  well  illustrated  in  the  eighth  petition,  addressed  by 
Quiros  to  the  King  of  Spain,  begging  him  to  "  give  com- 
mand to  have  a  goodly  and  great  city  built  in  this  port 
and  bay"  in  this  country,^  which  would  prove  to  be 
"  another  China  and  Japan  "  in  riches,  and  able  "  to 
nourish  200,000  Spaniards."  2  por  the  emphasis  is 
laid  in  this  appeal  almost  entirely  upon  the  commercial 
possibihties  of  settlement,  and  upon  the  glory  and 
wealth  which  would  come  from  dominion  there.  But 
the  predominant  thought  of  the  period  comes  out  in 
a  few  hues  at  the  close  of  a  long  description  of  the  riches 
of  the  land.  In  these,  Quiros,  although  the  second 
period  was  already  overlapping  the  close  of  the  first, 
still  cHngs  to  the  thought  that  rehgion  provided  a  sanction 
for  the  conquest  of  foreign  lands,  and  for  the  ex- 
ploiting of  their  wealth,  and  he  brings  forward,  almost 
shamefacedly,  "  the  principal  reason  "  for  settlement — 
"  that  this  is  the  sole  ordinary  way  to  establish  the 
knowledge  of  God  and  faith  amongst  them  "  (the  savages). 
Then  he  naively  adds,  as  knowing  what  alone  appealed 
to  his  king :  "  And  this  ought  to  be  embraced  with  the 
more  readiness,  because  it  is  the  channel  to  convey  and 
disperse  all  abundance  of  commodities  amongst  your 
subjects.  And  hereby  you  shall  be  eased  of  many 
vexations,  which  will  assuredly  be  put  upon  you  in  case 
the  enemies  of  the  Church  of  Rome  should  enter,  and 
nestle  there,  and  should  vent  their  erroneous  doctrines 
amongst  them,  whereby  they  would  .  .  .  arrogate  unto 
themselves  the  names  of  the  Lords  of  the  Indies."  ^ 

circuit  of  countries  which  were  honoured  by  the  presence  of  the  same.'* 
{Terra  Australis  Incognita.     J.  Callander,  1766,  vol.  ii.  p.  176.) 

^  Espiritu  Santo.  '  Callander,  he.  cit.,  p.  173, 

*  Callander,  he.  cit.,  p.  177. 


14  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

Thus  Quiros  reacted  to  his  memories  in  calling  the 
spread  of  the  CathoUc  faith  "  the  principal  reason  "  for 
settlement,  and  in  asserting  the  old  view  that  religion 
had  a  political  value.  But  in  mentioning  this  "  principal 
reason  "  only  as  an  afterthought,  he  intuitively  recognized 
that  it  was  no  longer  a  reason  for  expansion  at  all,  and 
that  men  had  begun  to  divorce  motives  of  religion  from 
those  of  commerce  and  politics. 

While  Quiros  was  thus  petitioning  in  vain,  the  enemies 
of  Spain  had  already  launched  forth  upon  their  piratical 
raids  upon  her  commerce.  Mr  Rogers  writes :  '*  They 
wished  not  to  discover  but  to  oppose  "  ;  ^  but  it  should 
be  added,  they  went  not  to  oppose  Cathohcism,  or  to 
claim  new  converts  to  Protestantism.  As  an  example 
of  Drake's  thirst  for  silver  and  gold,  this  writer  instances 
the  Spaniard  who  was  found  asleep  with  bars  of  silver 
beside  him.  They  robbed  him  of  the  silver  and  left 
him.  But  here,  too,  is  symbohzed  the  attitude  of  the 
Protestant  navigators  towards  missionary  work,  and 
its  contrast  with  the  attitude  of  the  Catholic  navigators. 
Religion  in  its  aspect  of  the  relationship  of  a  chosen  race 
to  the  heathen  made  no  appeal  to  them.  There  is 
probably  not  a  single  recorded  instance  of  an  attempt 
made  by  them  to  convert  CathoHc  prisoners  to  Protes- 
tantism, for  it  mattered  not  to  them  whether  the  souls 
of  the  queen's  enemies  passed  to  perdition,  or  to  paradise, 
so  long  as  they  speedily  left  their  bodies. 

This  change  of  attitude  was  revolutionary  and  lasting. 
For  a  period  religion  becomes  entirely  a  personal  relation- 
ship of  the  individual  with  his  God,  unaffected  by,  and 
unaffecting,  the  relationship  of  the  expanding  nations 
with  the  backward  races,  or  with  each  other.  Drake 
is   forced    into   antagonism   with    Doughty,   when   the 

*  Loc.  cit.,  p.  9. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  15 

latter  plays  traitor  to  their  temporal  faith,  and  Doughty 
is  condemned  to  die.  But  before  Doughty  leaves  the 
cabin,  Drake  and  he  bear  witness  to  their  common 
religious  faith  and  partake  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament 
together.^ 

Thus  the  missionary  friars,  who  have  acted  as  chorus 
to  the  royal  players  and  their  attendants,  are  driven 
off  the  stage  by  pirates,  who  do  not  stop  to  argue  with 
them  upon  the  meaning  of  their  chants. 

The  pirates  are  followed  by  traders,  whose  only  interest 
is  commerce  and  who  come  as  servants  of  capitalist 
companies,  their  orders  drafted  in  the  counting-house 
instead  of  the  palace.  Australia  and  Tasmania  are 
discovered,  and  New  Zealand  sighted,  by  Dutchmen  in 
search  of  markets  and  suppHes,  and  of  sites  for  trading 
stations.  Tasman  is  instructed  to  take  possession  only 
of  uninhabited  lands  (some  of  his  countrymen  had  been 
murdered  by  savages  not  long  before),  and  elsewhere  to 
behave  well  and  friendly  to  the  natives — in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  they  were  heathens.  Thus  religion  as  a  motive  for 
enterprise  loses  its  power  in  the  seventeenth  century ;  and 
where  Magellan  planted  a  cross,  Tasman  might  have  placed 
a  golden  calf — ^but  for  the  fact  that  a  trader  could  not  be 
extravagant.  And  so  he  put  up  posts  and  tin  plates 
instead.^ 

The  trading  motive  gathered  power  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  found  an  outlet  in  a  new  channel.  At  the 
close  of  the  previous  century  Enghsh  sovereigns  reasserted 
their  right  to  play  a  leading  part,  and  the  state  became 

*  Doughty  was  in  command  of  the  sloop  Swan  during  the  first  months 
of  Drake's  voyage  round  the  world.  He  deserted  off  the  coast  of 
South  America,  was  overtaken  and  executed  at  Port  St  Julian.  There 
is  evidence  that  he  was  in  Spanish  pay.  Froude,  English  Seamen  in 
the  Sixteenth  Century.     1907,  pp.  114-117. 

*  Rogers,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  11,  12. 


i6  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

patron  of  trade. ^  But  the  state  naturally  before  long  took 
a  broader  view  of  expansion,  and  thought  not  only  of 
money  bags,  but  of  colonists  ^ — ^but  of  these,  in  no  sense 
as  missionaries  of  civihzation  to  the  natives. 

The  initiative  came  from  France,  who  now  started 
upon  her  career  of  rivalry  with  England,  and  the 
competition  between  the  two  powers  resulted  in  the 
completion  of  the  discovery  of  the  Pacific  lands,  and  in 
the  assertion  of  national  claims  by  written  notices  upon 
the  trunks  of  trees,  and  by  plates.^  But  beyond  De 
Brosses'  suggestion  of  planting  convict  settlements,  out 
of  which  possibly  sprang  the  colonization  of  Austraha, 
there  were  no  theories  upon  how  the  new  lands  were  to 
be  peopled  or  administered,  and  no  forethought  upon 
the  problem  of  how  this  expansion  would  affect  the 
native  inhabitants.  At  least  records  of  it  are  hard  to 
find,  and  both  those  who  passed  excitedly  from  one  new 
island  to  another,  and  those  who  heard  of  their  adventures, 
probably  had  no  other  hopes  than  those  of  dominion 
and  wealth. 

This  is  the  period  of  the  assertion  of  rights — of  the 
right  of  the  discoverer  to  take  territory  from  savages 
who  were  not  developing  it,  and  of  his  right  to  hold  it 
against  those  with  intentions  similar  to  his  own,  who 
were  unlucky  enough  to  arrive  after  him. 

*  Cook  held  a  royal  commission  to  advance  "  the  honour  of  this 
nation  as  a  maritime  power  .  .  .  and  the  trade  and  navigation  thereof." 
His  secret  orders  were  "  to  take  possession  in  the  name  of  the  King  of 
Great  Britain  of  convenient  situations  in  such  countries  as  you  may 
discover  that  have  not  already  been  visited  or  discovered  by  any  other 
foreign  power."     (Rogers,  loc.  cit.,  p.  20.) 

^  De  Brosses  declared  that  trade  would  "create  new  nations."  A 
state  did  not  lose  its  rights  over  its  people  when  it  exported  them, 
for  the  state  was  the  tree  and  its  colonists  the  branches  (quoted  by 
Rogers,  loc.  cit.,  p.  18). 

'  Rogers,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  20,  21. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  17 

It  is  not  strange  that,  in  these  Southern  Seas,  Darwin 
found  an  atmosphere  fitting  to  his  meditations  upon 
the  law  of  struggle.  Yet  even  while  he  cruised  there, 
accumulating  material  evidence  for  the  truth  of  his 
theory,  the  atmosphere  was  changing  ;  and  curiously 
enough,  he  actually  met  some  of  those  who  were  re- 
sponsible for  the  change.  For  he  visited  Tahiti,^  where 
the  missionaries  had  already  started  to  bear  witness  to 
a  new  principle  of  progress,  based  upon  the  inter-relation 
not  of  rights,  but  of  duties. 

Yet  this  principle,  hke  many  of  the  islands  where  its 
truth  was  proved,  was  new  only  in  its  re-discovery,  and  in 
the  manner  of  its  appHcation.  For  the  missionaries  were 
only  pioneers  of  thought  in  that  they  were  the  first  to 
apply  to  pohtical  conduct  the  principles  of  personal 
conduct,  to  which  Europeans  in  their  churches  had 
blindly,  hke  automatons,  long  paid  hp-service.  Both 
they,  and  later  the  administrators  whom  they  advised 
and  influenced,  did  sincerely  try  to  carry  out  the  com- 
mandment of  the  Nazarene  to  love  their  neighbour  as 
themselves,  even  though  he  was  of  a  backward  race.  And 
for  their  reward  they  obtained  the  fulfilment  of  His 
promise.  For  it  has  been  the  meek  who  have  inherited 
the  Pacific. 

At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  therefore,  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific  lay  open,  awaiting  the  outflow  of 
colonists  from  Europe.  There  can  be  few  more  astonish- 
ing changes  in  the  kaleidoscope  of  history  than  this — that 
those  who  first  came  with  enthusiasm  to  the  new  lands  did 
not  come  hke  their  predecessors  to  assert  rights  of  posses- 
sion, but  disinterestedly,  to  claim  their  right  to  serve  the 
native  inhabitants. 

It  is  still  more  astonishing  to  find  that  John  WiUiams, 
»  The  Pacific,  lis  Past  and  Future.     G.  H.  Scbolefield,  191 9,  p.  7. 
B 


i8  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

the  pioneer  missionary,  in  a  flash  of  intuition,  realized, 
in  part,  the  significance  of  the  change  which  he  and  his 
followers  were  making.  After  noticing,  with  wonder,  the 
extraordinary  enthusiasm  with  which  the  project  of  Dr. 
Haweis  had  been  received,  and  the  ease  with  which  the 
L.M.S.  had  collected  £10,000  to  carry  it  out,  he  wrote  of 
Tahiti  :-- 

"Little  did  its  discoverer  think  when  hoisting  the 
broad  pennant  on  the  Tahitian  shores  and  taking 
possession  of  the  island  in  the  name  of  his  sovereign. 
King  George  IIL,  that  in  a  few  short  years  the  Missionary 
sent  by  the  liberality  and  sustained  by  the  prayers  of 
British  Christians,  would  follow  in  his  track  .  .  .  unfurl 
another  banner,  and  take  possession  of  that  and  other 
islands  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  kings."  ^ 

The  new  motive  behind  expansion  is  made  clear  by 
the  phrases  of  Wilhams.  These  first  settlers  in  the 
Pacific  Islands  came,  not  as  Christian  Britishers,  but  as 
"  British  Christians."  The  conversion  of  the  native  was 
their  sincere  purpose,  and  was  not  merely  a  means 
towards  obtaining  control  of  his  territory. 

The  relation  of  their  loyalties  was  different  from  that  of 
the  navigators  and  friars  and  traders,  in  that  loyalty  to 
their  faith  was  the  supreme  loyalty,  but  yet  supreme 
only  in  that  it  included  their  national  loyalty.  So 
Wilhams  assured  his  sovereign  in  dedicating  his  book  to 
him,  declaring  that  the  missionaries  "  in  prosecuting  the 
one  great  object  to  which  their  fives  are  consecrated, 
.  .  .  will  keep  in  view  whatever  may  promote  the 
Commerce  and  the  Science,  as  well  as  the  ReUgious 
glory,  of  their  beloved  Country."  ^ 

Within  the  hmitations  imposed  by  his  supreme  loyalty, 

^  A  Narrative  of  Missionary  Enterprise.     Rev.  J.  Williams,  1837,  p.  3. 
'  Loc.  cit.,  p.  V. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  19 

Williams  is  ready  to  serve  his  nation,  and  although  he 
himself  did  not  attach  the  first  importance  to  the  political 
results  of  missionary  work,  he  reahzed  that  "  wherever 
the  missionary  goes,  new  channels  are  cut  for  the  stream 
of  commerce,"  ^  and  that  shipping  would  find  security 
in  harbours  where  previously  from  fear  of  savage  in- 
habitants it  had  not  entered.^ 

Indeed,  in  his  general  appeal  at  the  end  of  the  volume, 
he  addresses  himself  to  the  "  statesman,"  pointing  out 
the  pohtical  advantages  to  be  gained  by  national  support 
of  missionary  work.  But  it  is  not  poHtical  support  he 
requires  but  unofficial  service  by  the  provision  of  funds 
and  by  individual  work,  and  also  recognition  from  the 
highest  in  the  land  that  his  cause  is  good,  and  that  the 
profession  of  missionary  is  as  noble  as  that  of  statesman 
or  soldier,  and  worthy  of  the  sons  of  the  nobility. 

But  it  is  clear  that  the  background  of  his  thought  was 
that  the  pohtical  advantages  to  be  gained  by  the  nation 
were  not  to  be  found  by  seeking  them,  but  only  by 
serving  the  Ideal  through  the  missionary  organization 
estabhshed  to  preach  it.  And  he  wished  his  countrymen 
to  share  with  him  his  enthusiastic  behef  that  these  pohtical 
advantages  were  unimportant  compared  to  the  glory 
which  was  to  be  won,  by  prosecuting  with  the  missionaries 
**  the  one  great  object  to  which  their  Uves  were  conse- 
crated"— the  conversion  and  civiUzation  of  the  heathen. 

Wilhams  is  thus  the  first  of  the  new  patriots — those 
who  point  their  nation  to  the  glory  to  be  achieved  by 
giving  instead  of  by  acquiring.     His  national  loyalty  did 

*  E.g.  Williams  introduced  the  Cavendish  banana  into  the  Pacific 
Islands  by  obtaining  some  plants  from  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  one 
of  which  survived  the  journey  out  there  and  was  planted  in  Samoa 
{The  New  Pacific,  C.  B.  Fletcher,  191 7,  pp.  76,  77).  Marsden  introduced 
wheat  into  New  Zealand. 

*  Loc.  cit.,  pp.  582-584. 


20  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

not  take  the  form  of  a  desire  to  see  the  British  flag 
triumphant  in  the  Pacific,  but  rather  to  see  its  islands 
filled  with  British  servants,  who  should  be  the  noblest 
his  country  could  produce. 

His  views  and  those  of  his  followers  were  not  anti- 
Imperialist,  as  critics  have  declared,  but  rather  the  vision 
of  a  new  Imperialism,  and  he  saw  the  conversion  of  Tahiti 
as  a  centre  for  missionary  expansion,  "  from  whence  the 
streams  of  salvation  are  to  flow  to  .  .  .  the  Fiji,  the 
New  Hebrides,  New  Caledonia,  Solomon's  Archipelago, 
New  Britain,  New  Ireland,  and  above  all  the  immense 
island  of  New  Guinea."  ^ 

Of  this  idealism  the  missionary  kingdoms  of  Tahiti 
and  Tonga  were  the  natural  results.  For  in  the  early 
part  of  the  century  the  only  people  to  be  governed  in 
the  islands  were  the  natives,  to  whom  the  missionaries 
came  as  spiritual  teachers,  but  of  whom  they  were  forced 
to  become  the  social  and  political  advisers  as  well. 

There  seems  no  reason  to  disbelieve  Williams  when  he 
denied  that  the  missionary  desired  to  establish  theocracies. 
"  I  would  not,  however,  be  supposed  to  advocate  the 
assumption  of  political  authority  by  the  missionary,"  he 
wrote,  "  but  on  the  contrary,  that  he  should  interfere  as 
httle  as  possible ;  and  whether  it  be  in  civil,  legal,  or 
poUtical  affairs,  that  he  should  do  so  solely  by  his 
advice  and  influence.  There  are  circumstances,  however, 
especially  in  newly-formed  missions,  where  he  must  step 
out  of  his  ordinary  course  and  appear  more  prominent 
than  he  would  wish."  ^ 

These  so-called  missionary  kingdoms  were  unsuited, 
however,  to  the  control  of  white  settlers  and  traders,  and 
when  the  latter  began  to  visit  the  islands,  missionary 
policy  underwent  a  change.     After  acting  as  a  stimulus 

^  L§c.  cit.,  pp.  6,  7.  2  Loc.  cit.y  p.  140. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  21 

to  expansion,  the  missionaries,  disillusioned  by  the  form 
that  expansion  took,  felt  obliged  to  oppose  it. 

This  process  of  disillusionment  is  well  seen  in  the  early 
history  of  New  Zealand.  The  Gospel  came  to  this  country 
owing  to  the  faith  of  Samuel  Marsden  in  its  future,  and 
his  energy  in  fitting  out  an  expedition  there,  in  spite  of 
the  opposition  of  the  Government.  For  as  in  New 
Guinea  later,  only  disinterested  motives  at  first  were 
strong  enough  to  move  men  to  risk  the  dangers  from 
savages,  and  since  the  Governor  of  New  South  Wales 
refused  permission  unless  a  vessel  could  be  chartered, 
and  since  no  captain  could  be  found  to  venture  for  less 
than  £600,  Marsden  bought  a  ship  with  his  own  money 
and  sailed  for  the  islands  with  a  party  of  thirty-five,  on 
November  19,  1814.^ 

The  missionary  enthusiasm  of  Marsden,  who  had  more 
of  the  colonist's  spirit  than  WiUiams,  had  been  awakened 
by  occasional  meetings  with  Maoris  on  the  quay  at  Port 
Jackson,  and  more  especially  by  the  interest  and  sym- 
pathy aroused  by  a  chief,  Duaterra,  whom  he  had  be- 
friended, on  finding  him  a  victim  of  unscrupulous  white 
traders. 2  Thus  Marsden 's  views  show  a  development 
from  those  of  Williams.  Where  Williams  wished  to 
replace  the  national  flag  by  an  imaginary  banner  of  a 
spiritual  King,  Marsden  welcomed  the  hoisting  of  the 
national  flag  at  the  first  Christian  service  held  in  New 
Zealand,  considering  it  "as  the  signal  and  the  dawn  of 
civihzation,  hberty  and  reUgion  in  that  dark  and  benighted 
land."  "  I  never  viewed  the  British  colours  with  more 
gratification,"  he  wrote,  "  and  flattered  myself  they 
would  never  be  removed  till  the  natives  of  that  island 
enjoyed  all  the  happiness  of  British  subjects."  ^    And 

*  Life  and  Work  of  Samuel  Marsden,     J.  B.  Marsden,  1858,  pp.  90-95. 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  64-68,  and  92.  *  Ibid.,  p.  loi. 


22  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

almost  at  once  he  endeavoured  to  explain  to  the  natives 
British  customs  and  institutions,  such  as  trial  by  jury, 
pointing  out  to  them  the  evils  of  theft  and  l5ang  and 
cannibalism.^ 

Marsden  was  thus  in  agreement  with  WilHams  in  re- 
garding the  responsibihties  involved  in  national  expansion, 
rather  than  the  profits  to  be  obtained  from  it.  He  differed 
from  Wilhams  in  beheving  that  it  was  through  their 
political  organization  as  much  as  through  their  missionary 
societies  that  those  duties  could  be  performed  by 
"  British  Christians." 

For  a  time  he  continued  to  take  an  optimistic  view  of 
British  expansion,  and  after  one  of  his  occasional  visits 
to  New  Zealand  in  1821,  he  wrote  hopefully  of  the  spread 
of  the  Gospel  and  of  the  blessings  of  civiHzation  in  the 
South  Seas,  adding  in  emphasis  of  the  rehgious  view  of 
poHtics  which  he  held,  that  "  to  impart  these  blessings 
to  the  New  Zealander  is  an  object  worthy  of  the  British 
nation  ;  a  more  noble  undertaking  could  not  be  suggested 
to  the  Christian  world."  ^ 

Unfortunately  demorahzation  crept  in  through  white 
traders,  whose  actions  could  not  be  controlled,  and  even 
owing  to  missionaries  who  proved  unworthy  of  their 
trust,  so  that  on  his  last  visit  in  1837,  he  was  distressed 
to  see  the  unhappy  state  of  the  Bay  of  Islands  "  where 
drunkenness,  adultery  and  murder  are  committed,"  and 
remarked  that  "some  civihzed  Government  must  take 
New  Zealand  under  its  protection  or  the  most  dreadful 
evils  will  be  committed  by  runaway  convicts,  sailors  and 
pubHcans."  "  When  I  return  to  New  South  Wales,"  he 
added,  "  I  purpose  to  lay  the  state  of  New  Zealand  before 
the  Colonial  Government."  ^ 

The  writer  has  been  unable  to  find  any  record  of  the 

1  Ibid,,  p.  104.  2  jjjid,^  p.  158.  '  Marsden,  loc.  cit.,  p.  258. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  23 

action  Marsden  took,  but  there  is  circumstantial  evidence 
which  suggests  that  missionary  influence  had  something 
to  do  with  the  refusal  of  Lord  Glenelg  to  sanction  the 
granting  of  a  charter  to  the  New  Zealand  Company, 
and  with  the  appointment  of  Captain  Hobson  as  British 
Consul  with  orders  to  negotiate  a  treaty  with  the  Maori 
tribes.  For  Lord  Glenelg  in  informing  Lord  Durham  of 
his  decision  ^  drew  attention  to  the  report  of  Captain 
Hobson, 2  who  had  visited  the  Bay  of  Islands  and  had 
been  impressed  by  the  power  of  the  missionaries,  and 
who  described  the  evils  noticed  by  Marsden  in  much  the 
same  words  as  the  missionary  used,  and  proposed  the 
same  preventive  and  cure  for  them.  And  Wakefield  in 
his  evidence  before  the  Select  Committee  of  the  House 
of  Commons  in  1840  complained  bitterly  of  the  fact  that 
Lord  Glenelg,  James  Stephen,  and  Sir  George  Grey  were 
all  officers  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  that 
the  Secretary  of  the  latter  was  apparently  consulted  on 
several  occasions  by  the  Colonial  Office.  ^  Many  of  the 
missionaries  on  the  spot,  however,  were  not  supporters 
of  the  policy  of  Government  intervention.  In  1833  James 
Busby  had  been  appointed  British  resident  in  New 
Zealand,  and  Goderich  wrote  to  the  chiefs  that  Busby 
would  endeavour  to  protect  them  from  the  \iolence  and 
crime  of  white  adventurers  of  bad  character.* 

But  although  Busby  was  "  specially  accredited  to  the 

'  February  5,  1838.  PP.  1840,  No.  582,  p.  153. 

=  PP.  1838,  No.  122. 

»  PP.  1840,  No.  582,  pp.  4,  7,  8,  148. 

Although  Under-Secretary,  Stephen  had  great  influence,  his  colleague, 
Sir  H.  Taylor,  declaring  that  "  for  many  years  he  literally  ruled  the 
Colonial  Empire  "  {Diet,  of  Nat.  Biography) .  He  was  a  son-in-law  of 
John  Venn,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society. 

*  The  Pacific,  Us  Past  and  FtUnre.  G.  H.  Scholefield,  1919,  pp.  204, 
205. 


14  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

missionaries  and  directed  to  consult  with  them  "  ;  owing 
to  a  difference  of  opinion  upon  minor  points  of  policy  he 
found  himself  opposed  by  them  at  a  critical  moment. 
Without  sufficient  powers  his  position  rapidly  became 
ludicrous  and  useless,  and  he  decided  to  invite  both  the 
Wesley  an  and  the  Church  Missionary  Society  mission- 
aries to  a  conference  "to  consult  whether  it  might  not 
be  prudent  for  them  to  induce  the  chief  ...  to  petition 
His  Majesty  for  assistance  in  reducing  their  country  to 
order,  and  establishing  in  it  an  efficient  Government." 
But  the  Wesleyans  excused  themselves  with  an  apology, 
and  the  members  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
neglected  to  attend  without  a  word  of  explanation.^ 

In  spite  of  this  incident  Busby,  in  requesting  Governor 
Sir  R.  Bourke  to  ask  the  British  Government  to  undertake 
the  protection  of  New  Zealand,  declared  that  although  he 
could  no  longer  co-operate  with  the  missionaries,  he  was 
in  accord  with  their  opinions  in  general  and  respected 
their  zeal,  and  advocated  "  a  defined  and  specific  share 
in  the  government  of  the  country  "  being  allotted  to  the 
missionaries,  as  otherwise  '*  that  influential  body,  in  the 
character  which  they  have  assumed  to  themselves  of 
guardians  to  the  natives,"  might  "  conceive  it  their  duty 
to  use  their  influence  in  opposition."  ^ 

The  evidence  of  Busby  therefore  shows  that  the  mis- 
sionaries resident  in  New  Zealand  took  a  narrower  view 
than  Marsden — partly  no  doubt  because,  unlike  Marsden, 
they  had  not  had  an  opportunity  of  appreciating  the 
colonist's  standpoint  from  personal  experience — and  that, 
as  Scholefield  suggests,  they  were  "  hostile  to  the  intro- 
duction  of    British   sovereignty,    for   the   very   human 

1  pp.  122  of  1838. 

«  June  16,  1837.  Forwarded  to  Lord  Glenelg,  September  9,  1837. 
PP.  122  of  1838,  pp.  10,  II. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  25 

reason  that  it  would  tend  to  detract  from  the  position 
of  influence,  almost  of  power,  which  they  themselves  held 
with  the  natives."  ^ 

However,  as  had  occurred  before  in  the  case  of  Austraha 
and  afterwards  in  the  case  of  New  Guinea,  it  was  the 
action  of  a  foreign  power  which  settled  the  question  of 
sovereignty.  Fear  of  French  enterprise  induced  Busby 
to  call  an  assembly  of  chiefs,  which  declared  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  United  Tribes  of  New  Zealand,  receiving 
the  recognition  of  WiUiam  IV.  Fear  of  French  enterprise 
four  years  later  forced  the  Government  to  send  out 
Captain  Hobson  to  obtain  by  treaty  from  the  native 
inhabitants  the  cession  of  their  sovereignty  to  Great 
Britain.2 

Upon  the  landing  of  Captain  Hobson,  missionary  poUcy 
passed  into  its  final  phase.  Stimulus  to  expansion  had 
resulted  in  the  immigration  of  bad  characters,  opposition 
had  failed  to  check  the  flow,  and  native  government  under 
missionary  influence  had  lamentably  failed.  In  1839  ^he 
New  Zealand  Company  "  in  direct  defiance  of  the  authority 
of  the  Crown  "  ^  broke  through  the  checks  placed  upon 
private  enterprise  by  missionary  influence  at  the  Colonial 
Office,  and  by  shipping  one  thousand  settlers  to  New 
Zealand  made  a  bad  position  much  worse.  The  inter- 
vention of  the  Government  for  strategic  reasons  gave 
the  final  blow  to  missionary  hopes  of  estabhshing  an 
independent  Maori  state  under  a  government  advised 
by  British  missionaries.*  From  henceforth  all  the 
missionaries  could  do  was  to  act  as  interpreters — in  the 
widest  sense — to  the  Government,  and  to  provide  an 
influence  upon  it  which  should  ensure  that  the  natives 

*  Scholefield,  he.  cit.,  p.  205.  '  Ibid.,  pp.  205-207. 

'  Report  of  Select  Committee  of  House  of  Commons,  1844.     PP. 
556,  p.  xvi.  *  Life  of  Marsden,  pp.  255,  256. 


26  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

were  not  treated  with  injustice,  either  by  intent  or  owing 
to  negligence  or  ignorance. 

This  gradual  development  of  missionary  policy  under 
the  force  of  circumstances  was  acknowledged  by  Dandeson 
Coates,  the  Secretary  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
in  his  examination  by  the  Select  Committee  of  the  House 
of  Commons  in  1840.  In  answer  to  the  allegation  of 
Wakefield  that,  at  a  stormy  interview  with  three  members 
of  the  New  Zealand  Association,  he  had  threatened  the 
latter  with  opposition  and  had  carried  out  that  threat, 
Coates  declared  that  it  had  been  the  wish  of  the  Society 
that  a  native  government  should  be  established  in  New 
Zealand  with  the  help  of  the  Government.  His  Society 
had  no  wish  to  discourage  colonization,  but  had  been 
opposed  to  the  assumption  of  sovereignty  by  Great 
Britain,  beUeving  it  to  be  "  a  violation  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  international  law,"  but  in  view  of  the  growth 
of  the  existing  evils  they  **  felt  perfectly  satisfied  "  with 
the  general  instructions  under  which  Captain  Hobson 
was  proceeding,  *'  and  they  have  remained  perfectly 
quiescent  with  regard  to  all  subsequent  proceedings."  ^ 

Those  instructions  included  the  information  that  to 
overcome  the  difficulties  he  would  have  to  face  from 
ignorant  and  distrustful  natives,  Captain  Hobson  would 
**  find  powerful  auxiliaries  amongst  the  missionaries,  who 
have  won  and  deserved  their  confidence  "  ;  and  he  was 
told  "  to  afford  the  utmost  encouragement,  protection  and 
support  to  their  Christian  teachers,"  and  to  give  them 
**  pecuniary  aid."  ^ 

1  pp.  Report,  New  Zealand,  1840,  582,  pp.  80-83. 

2  Earl  of  Normanby  to  Capt.  Hobson,  August  14,  1839,  quoted  in 
A.P.S., -pp.  60,  61. 

Compare  Para.  10  of  instructions  to  Sir  Peter  Scratchle^^  November  17, 
1884,  PP.  1885,  c.  4'2'J2,  p.  30  ,  .  .  "  you  will  doubtless  receive  willing 
and  efficient  aid  from  the  missionaries  who  have  settled  in  New  Guinea 
and  established  a  friendly  intercourse  with  the  natives." 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  27 

The  missionaries  on  the  whole  did  not  prove  unworthy 
of  the  hopes  of  the  Government,  and  the  claim  of 
the  Aborigines  Protection  Society  is  well-founded.  The 
Committee  of  this  Society  in  1846  pointed  out  to  the 
"  late  Secretaries  of  State  for  the  British  Colonies,"  that 
when  the  colonization  of  New  Zealand  was  determined 
upon,  "  fruitless  opposition  was  not  vexatiously  con- 
tinued," and  it  was  probable  that  "  the  influence  acquired 
by  the  missionaries  indirectly,  if  not  directly,  faciUtated 
the  arrangements  regarding  the  acquisition  of  land,  as  it 
unquestionably  did  the  transactions  of  the  Government, 
first  for  declaring  the  independence  and  subsequently  for 
effecting  the  annexation  of  the  country."  ^ 

In  one  important  instance,  however,  this  was  not  the 
case.  Fortunately  the  Government  at  home  met  with 
opposition  from  a  missionary  bishop,  when  it  proposed 
to  Governor  Grey  that  New  Zealand  should  be  provided 
with  a  constitution  which  would  have  shut  out  the  natives 
from  all  voice  in  the  Government,  and  must  have  placed 
the  latter  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  New  Zealand  Com- 
pany. Sir  George  Grey's  biographer  emphasizes  the  firm 
friendship  which  existed  between  him  and  Bishop  G.  A. 
Selwyn,  and  the  influence  the  bishop  exerted  upon  the 
statesman. 2  When  the  constitution  passed  by  the 
British  Parhament  in  1846  was  referred  to  the  Governor, 
Selwyn  wrote  to  him  (and  to  Earl  Grey)  "  vigorous  and 
outspoken  denunciations"  of  it,  and  Sir  George  Grey, 
who  refused  to  accept  it,  received  from  his  friend  "  warm 
sympathy  and  vigorous  aid,"  in  bravely  and  successfully 
maintaining  his  opposition. 

The  farewell  address  of  the  Maori  to  Sir  George  Grey, 

^  On  the  British  Colonization  of  New  Zealand,  1846,  pp.  it,  12. 
'  Life  and  Times  of  Sir  George  Grey.     W.  L.  Rees,  1892,  vol.  i.  pp. 
1 1 8-146. 


28  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

in  1854,  probably  gives  a  true  picture  of  the  co-operation 
which  existed  between  these  two,  and  suggests  the  value 
of  this,  and  also  of  the  early  missionary  work  to  the 
native  population  of  New  Zealand : 

"  When  the  missionaries  came  first  to  this  land,"  de- 
clared the  Maori  orator,  "  there  was  little  industry,  and 
little  good  was  visible  .  .  .  and  all  lived  in  ignorance. 
Then  God  kindled  His  light,  and  lo  !  it  became  as  day. 

"  After  this  came  Governor  Hobson,  and  then  a  little 
fear  came  over  us.  After  him  came  Governor  Fitzroy, 
and  things  went  on  in  a  similar  way.  But  when  you 
came,  oh  Governor  Grey,  it  was  like  the  shock  of  an 
earthquake  ;  your  fame  rose  to  the  centre  of  the  island, 
and  extended  to  the  waves  on  the  ocean's  shore.  You 
came  with  two  lights,  and  these  are  they :  The  lamp  of 
God,  and  the  lamp  of  the  world. 

"  Your  efforts  on  behalf  of  God's  cause  are  the  estab- 
lishment of  schools,  the  erection  of  houses  of  prayer — 
thus  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Church.  These  are 
the  things  you  did  in  regard  to  the  body ;  encouraged 
industry  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  pointed  out  the 
means  of  acquiring  property,  and  raised  this  island  to  its 
present  state  of  prosperity.  .  .  .  You  have  been  as  one 
of  the  ministers  of  the  churches,^  therefore  we  call  you  by 
these  names  :  The  Peacemaker,  the  Honourable,  the 
Friendly  One,  the  Loving  One,  the  Kind  One,  the 
Director,  the  Protector  .  .  .  and  the  Father. 

"  Although  we  heard  of  your  projected  departure,  we 
thought,  nevertheless,  that  you  would  stay.  Both  you 
and  Bishop  Selwyn  are  going.  New  Zealand  will  thus  be 
left  without  a  parent."  ^ 

The  language  of  savages  Hke  that  of  children  sometimes 

1  It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  the  compUment  was  the  greater  to  the 
missionary  or  to  the  statesman.  ^  W.  L.  Rees,  loc.  cit.,  p.  184. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  29 

has  an  aptness  unapproachable  by  the  phrases  of  a  maturer 
vocabulary.  To  be  a  parent,  and  not  a  taskmaster  to  the 
subject  race — ^here  surely  is  the  ideal  of  the  British  Pro- 
Consul.  And  is  not  this  also  the  true  imperiahsm — to 
bring  and  not  to  take  ?  To  bring  two  lights  :  The  lamp 
of  God  and  the  lamp  of  the  world  ?  ^ 

Forty  years  only  had  passed  since  Marsden  first  landed 
in  New  Zealand.  When  he  first  planted  the  seed  of  the 
new  Imperialism,  he  could  hardly  have  hoped  that,  in  so 
short  a  time,  young  and  vigorous  shoots  would  appear. 

Missionary  policy  went  through  much  the  same  de- 
velopment throughout  the  Pacific  as  in  New  Zealand, 
and  it  is  best  to  turn  to  Fiji  for  a  good  example  of  what 
the  advice  of  even  a  single  missionary  could  effect  in 
moulding  Government  policy  to  conform  to  principles  of 
justice  towards  the  native  races  in  the  settlement  of  land 
claims. 

There  is  no  more  difficult  problem  of  colonial  states- 
manship than  to  regulate  the  sale  of  land  by  the  native 
inhabitants  to  those  who,  by  reason  of  their  superior 
civilization,  claim  the  right  to  buy  hundreds  of  acres  of 
it  for  a  few  firearms  and  a  keg  or  two  of  liquor.  While 
the  settlers  with  some  justice  may  complain  that  much 
of  the  land  is  undeveloped,  and  for  that  reason  **  the 
natives  can  have  but  a  qualified  dominion  over  it,  or  a 
right  of  occupancy  only  "  ;  2  others  who  are  anxious  that 
justice  shall  be  done  to  the  natives,  assert  that  "  if  these 

^  It  is  worth  noticing  that  from  a  suggestion  by  W.  Lawry,  the  General 
Superintendent  of  National  Missions  in  1847,  and  from  the  experience 
of  Grey  and  Selwyn  in  their  voyage  together  through  the  Pacific 
Archipelagos,  sprang  the  Federation  scheme,  rejected  by  Earl  Grey, 
to  form  a  self-governing  and  self-supporting  Empire  in  the  Pacific, 
moulded  by  Christianity  and  European  civilization.  (Rees,  W.  L., 
loc.  cit.,  pp.  128,  129,  and  Scholefield,  loc.  cit.,  1919,  pp.  278-280.) 

*  Sir  G.  Gipps,  quoted  in  PP.  1844,  No.  556,  p.  iii. 


30  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

can  procure  the  means  of  bettering  their  condition " 
there  is  no  level  to  which  they  may  not  rise,^  and  that 
their  proprietary  rights  ought  to  be  considered. 

Although  the  British  Colonial  Office  throughout  the 
nineteenth  century  was  unwiUing  to  annex  fresh  territory 
on  account  of  the  responsibihty  which,  in  the  view  of  the 
missionaries,  the  more  civiHzed  nation  owed  to  the  back- 
ward race,  replying  that  "  the  hope  of  a  conversion  of  a 
people  to  Christianity,  however  specious,  must  not  be 
made  a  reason  for  increasing  the  British  dominions,"  ^  yet 
when  annexation  was  forced  upon  it  by  the  strategic 
situation  in  the  Pacific,  it  held  nobly  to  the  policy  initiated 
by  missionary  influence  in  the  'thirties,  and  endeavoured 
to  administer  the  new  territory  in  conformity  with  justice 
to  the  native. 

In  this  the  missionaries  were  of  great  assistance,  since 
they  were  conversant  with  the  native  language  and 
customs,  and,  being  disinterested,  were  thus  qualified 
both  by  their  knowledge  and  their  character  to  give  an 
authoritative  opinion  upon  the  nature  of  native  law. 

This  was  particularly  so  in  the  case  of  Fiji.  Previous 
to  the  cession  in  October  1874,  many  thousands  of  acres 
had  been  "  sold  "  to  white  men  of  various  antecedents, 
and  one  of  the  earliest  actions  of  the  Government  after 
the  sovereignty  of  the  island  had  been  assumed  was  to 
appoint  a  commission  to  inquire  into  Land  Titles.  Sir 
John  Thurston  held  the  view  that  the  lands  of  Fiji 
were  vested  in  the  ruling  chiefs,  and  that  the  remainder 
occupied  it  upon  a  basis  of  feudal  tenure  which  could  be 
terminated  at  will  by  the  ruling  chiefs.^  Sir  H.  Robinson 
supported  him,  holding  that  the  land  title,  as  well  as  the 

^  Marsden,  loc,  cit.,  p,  138. 

2  PP.  1862,  No.  2995  (quoted  by  Scholefield,  loc.  cit.,  p.  79). 

3  Quoted  by  Rev.  L.  Fison.  Land  Tenure  in  Fiji  (first  published  at 
Suva  in  1903),  p.  28. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  ^l 

sovereignty  of  the  group,  had  been  transferred  to  Her 
Majesty  by  the  chief s.^ 

In  fact  the  system  of  land  tenure  in  Fiji  was  much 
more  compUcated.  The  discovery  of  this  was  due  to  the 
work  of  a  missionary,  Lorimer  Fison,  who  deUvered  a 
lecture  upon  it  at  Levuka,  when  the  Lands  Commission 
was  about  to  sit.  He  proved  conclusively  that  by 
custom,  i.e.  by  law,  the  land  was  held  in  common  by 
MataqaH,*  that  it  was  entailed  to  posterity,  that  it  could 
be  occupied  by  force,  but  could  never  be  possessed  by 
any  Mataqali  other  than  the  one  owning  it,  and  that 
chiefs  had  no  right  to  dispose  of  it,  although  by  an  act  of 
despotism  they  might  do  so  illegally.  Fison  concluded 
his  lecture  by  declaring  that  "  in  ceding  the  Fiji  Islands 
to  the  British  Crown  the  chiefs  most  certainly  understood 
that  they  were  making  over  the  lands  as  well  as  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Group.  .  .  .  But  it  is  equally  certain 
that  they  had  not  the  land  title  in  their  hands.  In  all 
righteousness,  therefore,  it  is  the  management,  not  the 
ownership,  of  the  Fijian  estate  that  has  come  into  the 
possession  of  the  Crown."  ^ 

This  lecture  had  a  profound  effect  upon  British  policy 
with  regard  to  the  land  question  not  only  in  Fiji  but  also 
later  in  New  Guinea.*  The  Hon.  V.  A.  WiUiamson, 
Chairman  of  the  Lands  Commission,  wrote  to  the  Colonial 
Office  that  it  was  only  gradually  that  the  Commissioners 
who  were  at  first  "  profoundly  ignorant  "  of  native  customs 
came  to  understand  the  native  point  of  view.  "  I  believe 
I  am  quite  correct,"  he  declared,  "  in  expressing  my  con- 
viction that  the  lecture  of  the  Rev.  L.  Fison  (forwarded 

^  Ibid.,  p.  28. 

«  A  part  of  a  village  community — literally,  "  a  band  of  men  twisted 
together,"  of  which  "  the  twist  is  a  common  descent."     Ibid.,  p.  4. 
»  Ibid.,  p.  34.  •  Fletcher,  The  New  Pacific,  p.  173. 


32  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

herewith)  .  .  .  operated  quite  as  a  revelation  to  the 
European  population."  ^ 

The  lecture  was  quoted  by  the  Lands  Commission  in 
their  final  report  of  February  2,  1882,  as  an  authority 
upon  the  ancient  Fijian  customs  as  to  land  tenure  (par. 
37),  and  upon  the  rights  and  power  of  chiefs  to  override 
that  custom  (par.  44).  In  the  controversy  with  the 
German  Foreign  Office  upon  the  legaHty  of  the  decision 
of  the  Commission,  it  appears  to  have  been  the  deciding 
factor.  It  was  enclosed  in  Mo  to  the  German  Ambassador 
(October  24, 1882),  together  with  the  letter  of  Williamson, 
who  based  his  contradiction  of  the  claims  of  Messrs 
Hennings  upon  it.  The  full  history  of  the  controversy, 
and  the  effect  upon  it  of  the  lecture,  is  given  in  The  New 
Pacific,  by  Mr  Fletcher,  who  declares  that,  as  a  result  of 
the  study  of  its  conclusions,  "  any  claims  possible  to  the 
Crown  upon  lands  not  in  use  by  the  natives  were  allowed 
to  lapse." 

It  is  possible  to  argue  that  recognition  of  the  native 
rights  in  land  has  complicated  the  labour  question,  placed 
unnecessary  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  settlement  and 
development  of  the  Group,  and  tended  to  demoralize  the 
natives.  But  that  is  a  debatable  question  outside  the 
scope  of  this  essay,  which  is  only  intended  to  trace  the 
influence  that  missionaries  like  Fison  have  had  in  securing 
the  acceptance  by  British  administration  of  the  principle 
that  the  interests  of  British  colonists  shall  only  be  pursued, 
in  so  far  as  they  do  not  impinge  upon  the  rights  and 
interests  of  the  natives. 

This  was  how  the  natives'  rights  in  land  were  dealt 
with  when  there  were  missionaries  ready  to  give  advice, 
and  administrators  wise  enough  to  take  it.  *'  As  far  as 
Germany  was  concerned,  however,  the  lecture  remained 

1  PP.  1883,  c.  3584,  p.  66. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  33 

a  dead  document,  and  German  claims  upon  native  lands, 
rejected  in  Fiji,  were  uniformly  allowed  at  all  the  vital 
points  of  German  expansion  in  the  Pacific."  ^ 

The  transactions  upon  which  those  claims  were  based 
are  referred  to  in  the  report  by  Sterndale  of  1874.^  The 
property  of  Godeffroy  at  Apia,  for  instance,  "  com- 
prising about  25,000  acres  of  purchased  land,  of  which 
the  greater  proportion  is  not  to  be  surpassed  in  fertility 
in  any  region  of  the  tropical  world,"  was  "  bought  at  a 
low  rate  .  .  .  and  paid  for  chiefly  in  ammunition  and 
arms/' 

Such  were  the  claims  allowed  when  Germans  used 
their  "  best  influence  to  obstruct  and  exclude "  the 
missionaries.^ 

It  was  not  merely  that  the  Germans,  and  the  British 
too,  when  they  were  uncontrolled  by  the  missionaries  or 
administrators,  swindled  the  natives,  but  that  they  pro- 
vided them  with  the  means  of  demoraUzation.  Stern- 
dale  relates — it  is  difficult  to  judge  whether  with  pride 
or  with  his  tongue  in  his  cheek — that  "  during  the  pro- 
gress of  the  civil  strife  which  has  prevailed  for  several 
years  back  upon  the  middle  island  of  Samoa,  the  Messrs 
Godeffroy  enjoyed  exceptional  advantages  in  dealing 
with  the  natives  from  the  fact  of  their  possessing  a  manu- 
factory of  arms  at  Liege,  in  Belgium,  whereby  they  were 
enabled  to  supply  the  belUgerents  at  a  very  cheap  rate 
with  the  material  of  war."  And  Messrs  Godeffroy  and 
Son,  he  declares  elsewhere,  "  deservedly  rank  among  the 
most  enhghtened  merchants  of  Europe."  * 

*  Fletcher,  loc.  cit.,  p.  178. 

■  Papers  relating  to  the  South  Sea  Islands.  New  Zealand  Blue  Book, 
1874.  (A  copy  is  in  the  Library  of  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute.)  It 
is  constantly  referred  to  by  Mr  Fletcher  in  The  New  Pacific  and  in 
Stevenson's  Germany.  *  Ibid.  ♦  Ibid. 

C 


34  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

Against  such  commercialism  carried  on  by  such  "  en- 
Ughtened  merchants,"  the  British  missionaries  from  the 
first  determinedly  set  their  face.  If  George  IV.  and  his 
entourage  had  shown  as  much  perception  as  Marsden  they 
would  not  have  given  presents  of  muskets  ^  to  Shugie 
when  that  chief  visited  England  in  1819 ;  for  the  latter, 
upon  his  return,  quite  naturally  proceeded  to  massacre 
his  enemies  who  had  none.  As  a  result  the  natives  de- 
manded muskets  as  the  only  medium  of  barter,  and 
the  settlers,  among  whom  were  two  missionaries  whose 
dismissal  Marsden  afterwards  procured,  were  willing  to 
supply  them. 2 

Marsden,  upon  his  first  landing,  had  prohibited  the  sale 
or  barter  of  fire-arms  or  ammunition  on  any  pretext.  "  I 
told  them,"  he  wrote,  "  that  the  smith  should  make  axes 
or  hoes  or  any  other  tools  they  wanted,  but  that  he  was 
on  no  account  to  repair  any  pistols  or  muskets  ...  no, 
not  even  for  the  greatest  chiefs  upon  the  island."  ^  In 
1820,  therefore,  he  was  much  disturbed  at  the  situation 
created  by  the  folly  of  his  sovereign,  and  urged  the  settlers 
on  no  account  to  supply  arms,  and  wrote  to  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  in  London  that  it  would  be  "  better  to 
give  up  the  mission  for  the  present  than  to  trade  in  those 
articles."  * 

Those  who  followed  Marsden  took  up  the  same  attitude, 
and  Blue  Books  contain  records  of  the  support  the  mis- 
sionaries afforded  to  the  Government,  in  its  endeavours 
to  stamp  out  the  traffic. 

Equally  demoralizing  to  the  natives  was  the  liquor 
trade,  and  the  history  of  this  also  contains  evidence  of 
the  restraining  influence  of  the  missionaries,  who  always 

1  And  other  presents,  which  were  exchanged  for  muskets  at  Port 
Jackson.  '  Marsden,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  147,  170,  171. 

»  Ibid.,  p.  104.  *  Ibid.,  p.  147. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  35 

opposed  wholeheartedly  anything  which  involved  the 
exploiting  of  the  ignorance  of  savages  for  an  immediate 
commercial  advantage. 

The  nation  which  "  obstructed  "  and  "  excluded  "  them 
held  different  views.  In  1876  the  British  and  American 
Consuls  in  Samoa  "  appHed  to  the  German  Consul,  Mr 
Poppe,  to  join  them  in  forbidding  the  sale  of  intoxicating 
hquors  to  the  natives,  it  being  reasonably  feared  that, 
under  the  influence  of  drink,  fresh  outrages  would  take 
place.  But  this  Mr  Poppe  declined  to  do,  for  '  reasons  of 
his  own,'  which  he  decHned  to  give.  Messrs  Godeffroy 
practically  monopoHze  the  imported  liquor  trade  in 
Samoa."  This  was  the  manner  in  which  German  officials 
supported  "  the  most  enhghtened  merchants  of  Europe  " 
in  maintaining  their  hold  over  the  islands  in  which  they 
traded.^ 

The  Stemdale  report  contains  a  description  of  the  pros- 
perity and  good  order  existing  in  Rarotonga  which  may 
serve  as  an  instance  of  the  opposite  poHcy  to  the  German, 
carried  out  by  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  British  mis- 
sionaries, James  Chalmers.  On  taking  up  his  duties  there 
in  1867  Chalmers  was  faced  immediately  with  the  problem 
of  diminishing  what  he  termed  "  the  curse  of  all  curses." 
The  account  of  the  means  he  took  to  put  a  stop  to  it,  in 
which  he  was  eventually  successful,  is  too  long  to  quote, 
but  is  well  worth  reading. 2  By  his  personal  influence  he 
induced  the  chiefs  to  keep  the  restrictive  law — hitherto  a 
dead  letter — really  in  force,  he  turned  a  native  volunteer 
corps  to  good  account,  and  he  persevered  in  hut-to-hut 
visiting  until  the  natives  took  a  pride  in  them  and  started 

^  Disturbances  had  occurred  over  the  attempt  of  a  Colonel  Steinberger 
to  seize  control  over  the  island.  {Coral  Islands,  H.  Stonehewer  Cooper, 
1880,  vol.  ii.  p.  46.) 

*  James  Chalmers's  Autobiography  and  Letters,  ed.  by  R.  Lovett, 
1902. 


36  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

to  spend  their  wealth  upon  materials  and  tools.  Since 
his  efforts  were  based  upon  the  principle  that  if  the 
natives  "  spend  their  money  upon  their  homes  and  dress 
they  will  have  less  to  spend  upon  strong  drink,"  economic 
law  aided  him.  The  new  demands  called  out  from 
Auckland  the  more  respectable  type  of  trader  who  could 
satisfy  them ;  and  the  *'  miserable  traders  from  Tahiti 
.  .  .  who  would  sell  their  own  souls  to  make  a  few  dollars  " 
were  gradually  replaced  by  "  traders  of  a  very  different 
stamp  from  Auckland  .  .  .  who  brought  Manchester 
and  Shef&eld  goods,  excellent  in  quahty  and  abundant  in 
quantity,  as  well  as  provisions  and  what  other  things  the 
natives  may  like."  "  These  find  it  their  interest," 
Chalmers  added,  "  to  oppose  the  Hquor  traffic."  ^ 

But  the  evils  of  the  arms  and  Hquor  traffic  were  petty 
compared  with  the  gross  crimes  of  the  labour  trade.  And 
the  value  of  the  services  of  the  missionaries  in  fighting  it, 
and  in  mitigating  its  bad  influence  upon  the  relations 
between  the  civilized  and  the  savage  races  was  corre- 
spondingly greater.  Here  alone  there  is  sufficient  matter 
for  an  interesting  book,  but  the  writer  who  later  deals 
shortly  with  the  part  the  missionaries  of  New  Guinea 
played  can  only  now  find  space  to  refer  to  two  Blue 
Books  in  support  of  his  general  argument. 

In  the  report  of  a  Commission  of  1884  to  inquire  into 
the  working  of  the  Western  Pacific  Orders  in  Council, 
much  of  the  evidence  of  abuses  is  taken  from  a  statement 
by  Rev.  H.  A.  Robertson,  a  missionary  at  Erromanga 
from  1872-1883.  The  Commissioners  paid  a  strong 
tribute  to  the  missionaries,  "  who  form  a  power  ever  avail- 
able to  assist  in  upholding  order,  too  often  at  the  imminent 
risk  of  their  Uves,"  and  they  cited  the  cases  of  Bishop 
Selwyn  and  the  Rev.  J.  Bice,  who  had  helped  to  arrest 

1  Ibid.,  p.  108. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  37 

native  murderers,  and  also  the  case  of  Chalmers,  who 
had  acted  as  a  guide  to  a  punitive  expedition.  The 
missionaries  .  .  .  "  placed  as  they  are  all  over  the  Pacific," 
would  prove  valuable  aids  to  the  Deputy-Commissioners, 
and  the  Commission  advocated  co-operation  between 
them,  for  the  mission  stations  were  a  "  powerful  deter- 
rent to  crime."  ^ 

Although  in  this  way  they  assisted  the  Government 
officers  to  arrest  murderers  and  maintain  order,  the  mis- 
sionaries were  careful  constantly  to  point  out  that  native 
violence  was  nearly  always  a  reprisal  for  the  excesses 
committed  by  the  labour  ships.  In  the  correspondence 
which  passed  between  the  administrators  in  the  Pacific 
and  the  Colonial  Office  from  1 877-1 883,  the  missionaries 
are  often  cited  as  witnesses  of  the  fact. 2  In  many  cases 
articles  written  by  them  to  colonial  papers  are  the  form 
their  evidence  takes,  proving  that  they  not  only  influenced 
the  Government  against  the  traffic,  but  more  important, 
perhaps,  colonial  public  opinion  as  well.^ 

Thus  the  missionaries  during  the  final  phase  of  their 
policy  influenced  Government  policy  in  the  direction  of 
the  aim  with  which  they  had  originally  entered  the 
Pacific,  and  by  their  energetic  efforts  to  solve  the  land 
question  justly,  and  to  put  a  stop  to  the  labour  trade  and 
the  arms  and  liquor  traffic,  "  they  and  the  powerful  re- 
hgious  bodies  at  home  which  support  them,  did  much  to 
establish  the  principle  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  protect  the  rights  of  native  races."  * 

There  is  an  odd  paradox,  though,  to  notice  in  the  history 

»  pp.  1884,  c.  3905,  pp.  27,  32. 

•  E.g.,  pp.  1883,  c.  3641,  p.  140. 

'  But  the  allegations  of  the  missionaries  were  soiiietimes  exaggerated  : 
e.g.  Rev.  J.  G.  Pa  ton  in  Melbourne  Argus,  December  5,  1881.  See  PP. 
1883,  c.  3641,  p.  136. 

*  The  Character  of  the  British  Empire.     Ramsay  Muir,  191 7,  p.  29. 


38  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

of  this  final  phase  ;  for  when,  owing  to  the  action  of 
unscrupulous  traders,  the  missionaries  were  forced  into 
acting  as  a  check  upon  expansion,  they  eventually  found 
that  the  only  method  of  doing  this  was  to  act  as  a  stimulus 
to  it.  In  order  to  control  the  unofficial  movement  of 
expansion  they  were  driven  to  urge  an  unwilling  Govern- 
ment to  give  its  official  sanction  to  it,  and  hence  to  assume 
responsibility  for  it.  The  policy  of  the  C.M.S.  in  regard 
to  official  expansion  in  New  Zealand  had  proved  ineffective, 
and  on  the  whole  the  later  policy  throughout  the  Pacific 
was  to  demand  "  that  the  British  Government  ought  to 
assume  control  in  order  to  keep  the  traders  in  order.'*  ^ 

This  was  more  especially  the  case  towards  the  close  of 
the  century.  In  the  agitation  for  the  annexation  of  New 
Guinea  and  the  New  Hebrides  and  the  adjacent  islands, 
the  missionaries  were  the  leaders  of  Australian  opinion. 

Dr  George  Brown,^  under  the  name  "  Carpe  Diem,"  wrote 
a  series  of  articles  for  the  Sydney  Morning  Herald  advo- 
cating an  annexation  policy  in  the  Pacific  which  attracted 
much  attention,^  but  the  two  missionaries  who  urged  it 
most  energetically  upon  the  colonists  and  the  colonial 
Governments  were  J.  G.  Pat  on  and  D.  MacDonald. 
From  July  i6  to  October  29,  1883,  inclusive,  thirty  public 
meetings  were  held  in  Victoria  demanding  annexation  of 
the  New  Hebrides.^     Paton  lectured  at  eleven  of  them, 

1  The  Character  of  the  British  Empire.     Ramsay  Muir,  191 7,  p.  29. 

2  As  the  influence  of  this  missionary  was  chiefly  upon  German  ex- 
pansion, for  his  field  of  work  lay  mainly  in  New  Britain  and  New 
Ireland,  he  is  hardly  mentioned  in  this  essay.  He  did,  however,  ably 
assist  Sir  John  Thurston  in  removing  the  tyrannical  Baker  from  Tonga 
in  1889,  and  in  restoring  a  just  order  there.  He  is  cited  by  Fletcher 
as  an  important  witness  against  Germany.  {Autobiography,  1908, 
pp.  418-461),  (Fletcher  loc.  cit.). 

*  The  New  Pacific,  loc,  cit,,  p.  23-31  and  e.g.  The  Sydney  Morning 
HerAld,  June  9,  1883. 

*  PP.  1884,  c,  3863,  p.  88. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  39 

and  at  nine  of  them  the  resolutions  were  either  proposed 
or  seconded  by  a  Presbyterian  minister.  Copies  of  these 
resolutions  were  then  forwarded  to  Lord  Derby  by  the 
Governor. 

The  organization  of  these  meetings  was  in  order  to  show 
Lord  Normanby  and  Lord  Derby  that  the  demands 
advanced  by  the  missionaries  through  the  Premier, 
J.  Service,  were  not  those  of  a  few  individuals  who  were 
directly  connected  with  the  affairs  of  the  islands,  but 
were  sanctioned  by  a  large  body  of  opinion  in  the  colony. 

In  a  letter  forwarded  to  Lord  Derby  on  June  27,  1883, 
Service  enclosed  four  documents  for  which  he  asked  "  the 
gravest  consideration."  ^  The  first  was  a  letter  from  the 
Rev.  D.  MacDonald,  giving  some  cogent  reasons  for 
annexation.  This  New  Hebrides  missionary  pointed  out 
that  the  strategic  argument  appUed  equally  well  to  these 
islands  as  to  New  Guinea  which  had  been  annexed,  and 
that  the  majority  of  the  traders  and  planters  there  were 
British.  But  he  laid  most  emphasis  on  two  facts  :  first, 
that  the  labour  outrages  there  had  been  worse  than  in 
New  Guinea,  and  that  therefore  to  the  "  helpless  "  in- 
habitants was  owed  a  "  national  debt  of  reparation,"  and 
secondly,  that  the  four  missions  in  Polynesia  were  all 
British,  the  Presbyterian  in  the  New  Hebrides  being  the 
oldest  and  largest,  and  costing  in  British  and  colonial 
money  about  £6000  per  annum. 

The  second  document  was  a  report  of  the  argument 
advanced  by  a  large  deputation,  which  included  several 
missionaries — five  of  whom  spoke.  Stress  here  too  was 
laid  upon  the  British  money  spent  and  British  blood  spilt, 
only  apparently  in  order  that  another  nation  might  step 
in  and  reap  the  harvest. 

The  third  was  an  imperfect  return  of  the  petitions 

'  pp.  1883,  c.  3814,  p.  23. 


40  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

that  had  been  presented  for  the  annexation  of  the 
New  Hebrides  between  1862  and  1882,  inclusive.  Two 
were  by  natives  through  missionaries,  one  by  the  New 
Hebridean  mission,  three  by  colonial  churches,  and  one 
by  representatives  of  all  these  assembled  in  a  conference 
at  Sydney  in  1882. 

And  finally  there  was  a  memorandum  by  Paton  giving 
some  reasons  for  the  annexation  of  the  New  Hebrides. 
He  urged  that  the  natives  wished  it,  that  twenty-one 
members  of  the  mission,  including  Bishop  Patteson,  had 
died  or  been  killed  in  civilizing  the  group,  that  over 
£140,000  of  British  money  had  been  spent  in  missionary 
work,  that  owing  to  the  work  of  the  mission  the  islands 
were  now  comparatively  safe,  and  that  there  was  no 
other  way  to  suppress  the  labour  traffic. 

In  forwarding  these  documents  Service  summarized  the 
political  reasons  ;  and  added,  "  As  is  well  pointed  out  by 
the  missionaries,  there  are  considerations  of  humanity  and 
civilization  which  seem  to  add  a  clenching  force  to  every 
other  consideration.*'  ^ 

The  following  month.  Service  wrote  again  to  Lord 
Normanby  regretting  the  decision  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment with  regard  to  New  Guinea,  and  repeating  the 
arguments  previously  put  forward  for  the  annexation  of 
the  New  Hebrides  and  the  adjacent  islands.  In  citing  the 
documents  which  he  had  previously  enclosed,  and  also  a 
report  of  a  meeting  held  in  Melbourne  Town  Hall  on 
July  16,  at  which  three  missionaries  seconded  the  three 
resolutions  in  favour  of  this  policy,  Service  drew  atten- 
tion to  "  the  personnel  of  the  movers  in  this  matter." 

*'  The  political  advantages  of  the  annexation  had  long 
been  apparent  to  me  and  to  other  public  men  in  these 
Colonies,"  he  wrote,  "  but  it  was  a  letter  from  the  Rev. 
1  PP.  1883,  c.  3814,  p,  23. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  41 

D.  MacDonald,  a  well-known  New  Hebrides  missionary, 
followed  by  a  large  deputation  of  missionaries,  clergymen 
and  other  prominent  philanthropic  gentlemen,  which 
formed  the  means  of  bringing  to  a  focus  the  existing 
feeHng  on  the  subject."  ^ 

The  British  Government,  however,  refused  to  take  the 
step  demanded  of  them,  and  the  controversy  dragged  on 
until  1906,  when  a  Convention  was  signed  by  France  and 
Great  Britain  providing  that  the  New  Hebrides  with  the 
Banks  and  Torres  Islands  should  form  a  "  region  of  joint 
influence."  Elaborate  provision  was  made  under  Article 
Vni  to  control  the  labour  traffic  and  to  settle  land  dis- 
putes, and  the  traffic  in  liquor  and  arms  was  prohibited.* 

Although  the  missionaries  did  not  obtain  a  British 
protectorate  for  these  islands  they  were  at  least  successful 
in  obtaining  for  Great  Britain  a  half -measure  of  control. 
It  is  true  that  the  system  of  joint  control  has  not  proved 
efficient,  and  that  the  education  of  the  native  has  been 
neglected,  so  that  he  lives  in  idleness  and  the  plantations 
are  undeveloped.  But  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  would 
have  been  in  worse  case  if  French  designs  there  had  not 
been  opposed  at  all.^ 

Apart  from  the  possibiUty  of  the  group  becoming  a 
penal  settlement,  early  in  1883  there  was  an  attempt 
made  by  a  French  colonization  company,  with  capital 
alleged  by  Paton  to  be  £22,000,  to  colonize  the  New 
Hebrides  with  Frenchmen,  and  thus  to  force  their 
Government's  hands.  It  was  shown  by  the  missionaries 
that  they  had  bought  much  land  on  one  of  the  islands, 
Efate,*  of  which  the  missionaries  claimed  to  have  the  title- 

1  Forwarded  to  Lord  Derby,  July  27,  1883,  PP.  1884,  c.  3863,  p.  11. 

*  The  Pacific,  Its  Past  and  Future.     Scholefield,  1919,  pp.  256-272. 

*  See  post,  Conclusion,  pp.  126,  127. 

*  In  tlie  New  Hebrides. 


42  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

deeds.  Paton  and  another  missionary  informed  the 
Colonial  Office,  whose  inquiries  substantiated  their  state- 
ment.^ A  protest  was  made  to  the  French  Government, 
and  the  incident  was  closed  by  the  consideration  received 
by  the  natives  for  the  land  being  returned  to  the 
buyers.'  This  incident  provided  later  a  good  argument 
in  the  case  for  annexation. 

Thus  there  seems  no  reason  to  dispute  the  statement 
of  Sir  William  Macgregor  that  "  it  was  chiefly  due  to  the 
Presbyterian  mission  in  that  group,  and  to  the  Victorian 
Government,  that  Great  Britain  was  not  edged  out  of 
these  islands."  ^  As  to  the  part  the  statesmen  played  in 
it.  Sir  Charles  Dilke  held  the  view,  which  is  borne  out  by 
the  evidence  of  the  Blue  Book,  that  "  the  agitations  for 
saving  the  New  Hebrides  from  France  and  for  obtaining 
New  Guinea  for  ourselves  .  .  .  took  their  shape  "  from 
the  Premier  of  Victoria.'*  But  Service  himself  thought 
that  "  it  was  a  letter  from  ...  a  well-known  New 
Hebrides  missionary  followed  by  a  large  deputation  of 
missionaries  .  .  .  which  formed  the  means  of  bringing 
to  a  focus  the  existing  feeling  on  the  subject."  ^ 

It  would  not  be  right,  however,  to  argue  from  the 
missionary  demands  for  the  annexation  of  more  territory 
to  the  British  Crown,  that  they  were  consciously  striving 
to  smooth  the  way  for  British  colonists  throughout  the 
nineteenth  century.  If  this  short  survey,  briefly  illus- 
trated, is  a  true  sketch  of  the  influence  of  the  missionaries 
during  this  period,  it  proves  that  although  their  policy 
developed  until  they  were  eager  for  the  British  Govern- 

1  March  i,  1883. 

a  October  29,  1883.     PP.  1884,  c.  3863. 

'  Scottish  Geographical  Magazine,  May  191 8. 

*  Problems  of  Greater  Britain,  1890,  vol.  i.  p.  221. 

^  See  ante,  p.  40. 


A  GENERAL  SURVEY  43 

ment  to  assume  control  of  the  Pacific,  their  energy 
sprang  from  their  faith  in  a  new  principle — that  duties 
which  demanded  performance,  and  not  rights  which 
might  be  claimed,  were  the  only  justification  for 
European  expansion  at  all. 

At  first  they  acted  as  a  stimulus  upon  that  expansion, 
constantly  crying  out  for  fresh  workers  in  the  missionary 
field.  But  as  the  native  gradually  cast  off  his  savagery 
under  their  civiUzing  influence,  the  islands  became  safer 
and  traders  and  adventurers  began  to  frequent  them. 
Thus,  inadvertently,  the  missionaries  encouraged  an  ex- 
pansion which  was  a  menace  to  their  plans. 

They  had  hoped  to  train  up  the  native  races  until 
they  grew  to  Christian  nations.  But  the  methods,  which 
proved  adequate  to  produce  and  maintain  order,  when 
there  were  only  natives  to  control,  broke  down  when  it 
became  necessary  to  govern  the  *'  civiUzed  "  white  man. 

For  a  time  missionaries  still  clung  to  the  ideal  of 
WiUiams,  who  saw  sufficient  glory  for  his  nation  in 
disinterested  work  on  behalf  of  the  natives,  without  any 
poUtical  dominion  over  them,  energetically  opposing 
those  whose  expansion  was  a  menace  to  this,  and  en- 
deavouring, successfully  on  some  occasions,  to  influence 
the  British  Government  to  do  the  same. 

But  this  policy  also  failed,  and  they  were  finally  driven 
by  the  force  of  circumstances  to  demand  that  "  the 
British  Government  ought  to  assume  control  in  order 
to  keep  the  traders  in  order."  The  British  Government, 
however,  was  unwilUng  to  do  this,  and  one  by  one  the 
islands  of  which  the  cession  was  declined,  passed  into 
the  hands  of  other  nations.  In  others,  strategic  argu- 
ments led  the  Colonial  Office  reluctantly,  and  after  much 
delay,  to  accept  responsibihties  which  the  missionaries 
and  the  natives  were  eager  to  thrust  upon  it.    Only  in 


44  A  GENERAL  SURVEY 

the  case  of  Fiji  did  it  annex  in  order  to  control  the 
relations  of  whites  and  natives. 

But  wherever  the  British  flag  was  hoisted  the  mission- 
aries worked  indefatigably  to  mould  the  poUcy  of  the 
administration  in  accordance  with  their  principle,  and 
to  encourage  it  to  perform  those  duties  which  they  had 
first  taken  upon  themselves,  but  which  circumstances 
had  taken  from  them. 

But  the  delay  which  occurred  before  this  transference 
of  responsibihty  took  place,  and  the  fact  that  in  many 
cases  it  never  took  place  at  all,  was  due  partly  to  a  failure 
in  the  missionaries  to  realize  the  moment  when  their 
methods  were  no  longer  applicable  to  their  ideal.  The 
evils  of  no-government  and  of  misgovernment  were  the 
result. 

But  in  the  Southern  portion  of  New  Guinea — partly, 
here  also,  owing  to  strategic  considerations — the  trans- 
ference took  place  before  much  harm  was  done.  And 
when  Southern  New  Guinea  became  a  British  Dependency 
it  was  blessed  by  the  co-operation  in  its  service  of  an 
administrator  who  was  a  missionary,  and  a  missionary 
who  was  an  administrator.  It  is,  for  these  two  reasons, 
chosen  for  more  intensive  treatment,  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  gradual  development  of  missionary  policy, 
to  mould  changing  circumstances  in  conformity  with  a 
fixed  principle. 


PART   II 

BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

"  They  asked  again  : — 

'  And  whom  you  think  the  rarest  man  of  all  ?  ' 

'  A  man  whose  ideal  and  method  are  neither  opposed  to  nor  separated 
from  each  other.'  " 

R.  A.  Vran-Gavran, 
{Loc.  cit.). 

CHAPTER  I 

EXPLORATION 

Although  New  Guinea  was  discovered  in  15 ii,  and  the 
Spaniard  Torres  touched  at  the  Louisiade  group  as  early 
as  1606,  Uttle  was  known  of  the  mainland,  and  nothing 
of  even  the  fringe  of  the  interior,  when  the  two  pioneers 
of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  Rev.  A.  W.  Murray 
and  Rev.  S.  Macfarlane  visited  Yule  Island  and  Redscar 
Bay  in  1871,  on  a  voyage  from  the  Loyalty  Islands,  to 
put  native  teachers  on  the  islands  in  the  Torres  Straits.^ 
There  had  been  surveys  of  the  southern  coasts  by  various 
naval  officers  during  the  'forties,  and  the  Dutch  had 
estabUshed  some  trading  posts  and  missionary  stations 

*  Rev.  J.  King  (at  one  period  Australasian  Organizing  Agent  of 
the  L.M.S.)  attributes  the  first  suggestion  that  the  L.M.S.  should 
undertake  work  in  New  Guinea  to  a  conversation  between  Captain 
Banner,  a  trader,  and  the  Rev.  J.  Jones  in  1866.  The  latter  brought  it 
before  the  L.M.S.  Foreign  Secretary  in  1870.  {W.  G.  Lawes  of  Savage 
Island  and  New  Guinea.     J.  King,  1909,  p.  48,) 


46  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

on  its  north-western  shores ;  and  in  1873-74  Captain 
J.  Moresby  carried  out  a  more  elaborate  survey  of  the 
south-eastern  coast,  hoisting  the  flag  on  Hayter  Island  ; 
but  before  the  advent  of  the  missionaries  no  serious 
attempt  was  made  to  open  up  "  this  vast  unknown 
country,"  as  Rev.  W.  W.  Gill  described  it  to  the  Colonial 
Treasurer  in  1873. ^ 

In  1872  Murray  started  superintending  mission  work 
from  Cape  York ;  two  years  later  he  was  joined  by 
Rev.  S.  Macfarlane  and  Rev.  W.  G.  Lawes  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  the  steamer  Ellengowan  was  given  to  the 
mission  by  a  Miss  Baxter  of  Dundee.  In  1874  Lawes 
landed  at  Port  Moresby,  and  in  1877  the  Rev.  James 
Chalmers  joined  him.  Macfarlane,  Lawes  and  Chalmers 
were  the  leaders  of  Protestant  missionary  enterprise  in 
New  Guinea ;  and  from  the  first  they  showed  them- 
selves eager  to  make  their  reUgious  work  an  excuse 
for  adventurous  exploration  with  results  which,  if  not 
as  important  as  the  poHtical  influence  they  wielded, 
were  by  no  means  negligible.  Indeed  the  missionaries 
received  the  thanks  of  the  President  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society  as  early  as  1875,  two  years 
before  Chalmers  had  started  his  fine  achievements.^ 
Some  of  these  achievements  were  recounted  by  the 
Hon.  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Australian  Geographical 
Society,  in  a  paper  read  before  a  general  meeting  of  the 
Society  in  1883,  when  he  gave  to  the  missionaries  an 
important  place  in  the  history  of  New  Guinea  exploration. 
He  recalled  Chalmers's  attempt  in  1879  to  cross  the  Owen 
Stanley  Range,  and  the  "  splendid  view  "  he  had  obtained 
of  a  country  which,  in  Chalmers's  own  phrase,  "  had  no 
equal  in  New  Guinea."    After  referring  to  the  discovery 

1  pp.  1876,  c.  1566. 

^  Royal  Geographical  Society,  February  22,  1875. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  47 

by  Chalmers  of  the  Laroki  Falls,  the  lecturer  went  on  to 
outline  an  ambitious  scheme  for  future  exploration,  in 
which  he  allotted  the  missionaries  a  part.  "As  to  the 
country  between  Port  Moresby  and  the  extreme  south- 
east," he  declared,  "  we  may  leave  to  them  the  task  of 
completing  our  geographical  knowledge  of  that  part 
of  New  Guinea."  ^ 

During  the  'eighties  the  Proceedings  of  the  R.G.S. 
(London)  contained  many  communications  from  New 
Guinea  missionaries. ^  Indeed,  their  enterprise  contrasts 
strikingly  with  the  sluggishness  of  the  Dutch  in  the  north- 
west, where  Signor  D'Albertis  in  1872  found  that  from 
Sorong  to  Dorei  the  interior  was  entirely  unexplored, 
"  although  Dutch  missionaries  had  Uved  there  for  more 
than  twenty  years."  ^  But  Chalmers  in  the  second  year 
of  his  appointment  discovered  and  named  more  than 
ten  separate  hills  or  mountain  ranges  in  the  country 
north  of  the  Papuan  Gulf. 

The  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  to  Eastern  New 
Guinea  followed  gallantly  in  the  steps  of  the  first 
Protestant  pioneers.  In  the  report  of  the  Special  Com- 
missioner for  1888  it  is  noted  that  the  "  French  CathoUc 
Missionaries  at  Yule  Island  are  Ukely  to  be  useful 
pioneers  "...  they  "  have  explored  the  San  Joseph 
River  '*  ;^  the  firstfruits  of  which  are  seen  in  the  report 
of  the  following  year,  which  contained  detailed  informa- 
tion for  the  Government  about  the  land,  climate  and 
population  of  this  district.^ 

*  Sydney  Morning  Herald,  June  23,  1883,  Also  R.G.S.,  i88o,  ii. 
p.  315. 

*  E.g.,  Account  of  the  Kemp-Welch  River,  by  Rev.  T  Beswick. 
R.G.S.,  1880,  u.  p.  511. 

»  What  I  Did  and  What  I  Saw.     L.  M.  D'Albertis,  1880,  i.  p.  208. 

*  PP.  1889,  c.  5620-3,  p.  9. 

»  PP.  1890-9T,  c.  6269-5,  and  PP.  1891,  c.  6323,  pp.  150-161. 


48  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

It  is  true  that  the  claims  of  the  missionaries  were  some- 
times extravagant.  For  Chalmers,  on  the  return  of 
Theodore  Be  van  in  1887,  who  had  discovered  and  ex- 
plored the  Douglas  and  Queen's  Jubilee  Rivers  for  nearly 
a  hundred  miles,  chose  to  minimize  the  value  of  this 
enterprise,  declaring  "  that  nearly  seven  years  ago  I  had 
named  much  that  Mr  Bevan  has  now  named."  ^  A 
bitter  controversy  followed,  which  was  revived  by  Lawes 
a  year  later,  when  the  President  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  of  Australia  supported  Bevan,  demoHshing  Lawes's 
case  and  showing  that  the  Wickam  River  of  Chalmers 
was  but  a  mouth  of  the  Queen's  Jubilee,  up  which 
Chalmers  had  only  claimed  to  go  ten  miles,  whereas  it 
was  found  by  Bevan  to  be  thirty  miles  long.  The 
President  added :  "Mr  Chalmers's  accounts  are  character- 
ized by  a  vagueness  that  greatly  detracts  from  their 
geographic  value."  ^ 

This  criticism  is  sufficiently  just  perhaps  to  have 
finality,  but  it  in  no  way  detracts  from  the  political 
value  of  Chalmers's  exploration  work.  Chalmers,  and 
other  missionaries  such  as  Lawes  who  were  less  pro- 
minent in  this  field,  were  interested  not  so  much  in  the 
shape  of  a  mountain  or  in  the  depth  of  a  river,  as  in  the 
fact  of  their  existence  and  of  their  consequent  influence 
upon  the  mission.  Mountains  were  viewed  as  obstacles 
to  communication  between  districts,  but  also  as  bearing 
upon  their  slopes,  just  as  rivers  did  upon  their  banks, 
hitherto  unknown  villages  which  provided  new  oppor- 
tunities. During  a  cruise  along  the  south  coast  in  1878, 
out  of  two  hundred  villages  which  were  communicated 
with,  ninety  were  visited  for  the  first  time  by  a  white 

1  Autobiography  and  Letters.     J.  Chalmers,  edited  by  R.  Lovett,  1902, 
p.  293. 

2  British  New  Guinea.    Theodore  Bevan,  1890,  pp.  185-210. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  49 

man,  and  the  diaries  of  all  his  expeditions  show  Chalmers 
to  have  been  viewing  every  place  he  visited  as  a  possible 
new  field  of  labour.  "  Gimenumu  will  make  a  fine 
mission  station/'  he  writes  in  1879  '>  "  ^  large  village 
1900  feet  up ;  fine  plantations  and  plenty  of  water."  He 
was  interested,  too,  in  trading  possibilities,  noting  sago 
in  large  abundance  in  the  villages  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  he  named  Coombes,  and  elsewhere,  and  foretelHng 
that  "  a  very  large  trade  will  yet  be  carried  on  by 
foreigners  in  the  Gulf  in  sago  and  copra."  ^ 

He  has  information,  too,  for  prospective  settlers,  noting 
carefully  the  healthy  and  fertile  districts,  such  as  about 
Kivori,  where  he  found  "  well-kept  plantations  in  the 
hiUs."  In  addition,  he  writes  of  the  flora,  notes  the 
presence  of  elephantiasis  in  one  district,  and  utters  a 
warning  as  to  the  presence  of  a  treacherous  tribe. 2 

Such  diverse  information,  it  may  be  argued,  any  ex- 
plorer is  expected  to  give  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Chalmers  was  a  "  pioneer  missionary  "  and  made 
"  no  pretence  to  be  a  pioneer  explorer."  ^  Thus  writes 
one  of  his  critics,  and  he  has  the  evidence  of  Chalmers's 
writings  to  support  him.  In  1878  the  missionary  wrote 
that  he  still  had  a  desire  to  cross  the  Peninsula  to  Huon 
Gulf,  not  as  explorer  but  as  missionary,  "  but  I  do  wish 
to  know  all  there  is  to  be  known  about  New  Guinea," 
he  adds.*  Nine  years  later,  in  describing  some  of  his 
early  expeditions,  he  asserted  that  their  aim  was  to 
discover  suitable  spots  for  mission  stations  and  for 
native  teachers.^    There  were  some,  however,  who  con- 


1  Ibid.,  pp.  63,  123,  137,  150. 

'  Ibid.,  pp.  107,  108,  141,  142. 

'  Hon.  Sec.  R.G.S.  (London),  quoted  by  Bevan,  he.  cit.,  p.  264. 

*  Autobiography,  loc.  cit.,  p.  190. 

»  Pioneering  in  New  Guinea,  1887,  p.  i, 

0 


50  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

sidered  that  he  made  a  better  explorer  than  those  who 
Uked  to  claim  the  title.^  Certainly  he  covered  more 
ground  than  many  of  them.  Deputy-Commissioner 
Romilly  declared  with  his  accustomed  vigour  that  "  the 
conceit  of  these  so-called  explorers  made  him  very 
angry,"  ^  all  the  more  because  they  rarely  mentioned 
the  missionaries,  "  the  source  of  most  of  their  in- 
formation." ^ 

Even  if  the  geographic  value  of  his  work  may  have 
been  slight,  as  some  of  his  critics  held,  the  value  of  the 
political  information  collected  by  him  and  other  mission- 
aries cannot  be  denied,  for  they  are  cited  as  authorities, 
not  only  in  the  press  by  political  controversialists,*  but 
also  by  Government  departments,^  and  by  administrators  ^ 
in   official  correspondence.     Both  Lawes  and  Chalmers 

^  Deputy-Commissioner  Romilly  Reports,  November  1883.  Armit 
of  the  Argus  reached  a  point  forty  miles  from  coast,  which  had  been 
previously  visited  by  Mr  and  Mrs  Lawes.  He  suffered  severely  from 
fever,  and  one  of  his  party  died.  "  These  private  expeditions  led  by 
men  of  no  experience  will  do  much  harm  if  any  more  should  be  organ- 
ized."    PP.  1884,  c.  4126,  pp.  17,  18. 

2  Letters  and  Memoir  (1893),  p.  194. 

^  The  Western  Pacific  and  New  Guinea  (1886),  p.  242.    Hugh  Romilly. 

*  E.g.,  In  a  strong  article  in  the  National  Review  of  September 
1887  in  favour  of  annexation,  W.  D.  Hay  quotes  Chalmers's  statement 
that  there  were  possibilities  of  successful  sugar,  coffee  and  cotton 
planting  in  the  island,  and  recalls  his  estimate  of  the  density  of  popu- 
lation ("  really  scanty,  about  200,000  ")  to  show  that  fears  on  this 
score  were  groundless. 

»  E.g.,  A  paper  by  Rev,  W.  Gill  read  before  the  R.G.S.  in  1874  was 
cited  by  the  Admiralty  to  the  Colonial  Office,  September  22,  1875 
(PP.  1876,  c.  1566). 

®  E.g.,  In  the  report  of  the  Special  Commissioner  for  1888  (PP.  1889, 
c.  5620-3),  pp.  65,  66,  Deputy-Commissioner  A.  Musgrave  encloses  a 
report  of  a  lecture  by  Rev.  S.  Macfarlane  declaring,  inter  alia,  that  the 
colony  could  be  made  self-supporting,  emphasizing  this  by  a  letter  from 
Capt.  C.  Bridge,  R.N.,  in  agreement,  who  states  that  his  opinion  had 
been  "  confirmed  by  several  conversations  with  my  distinguished 
friend  Mr  Chalmers." 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  51 

described  in  much  detail  the  character,  customs,  and 
manner  of  life  of  the  natives  with  whom  they  came  in 
contact,^  so  that  no  one  visiting  those  tribes  as  Govern- 
ment official  or  merely  as  adventurer  could  complain 
that  he  need  lack  knowledge  of  the  conditions  he  was 
entering,  or  of  the  manner  in  which  the  missionaries 
had  successfully  faced  them.  "  To  them  we  are  in- 
debted," declared  La  Meslee,  "  for  the  knowledge  we 
possess  of  the  inland  tribes  around  Port  Moresby,"  ^ 
that  settlement  of  the  London  Missionary  Society  which 
was  destined  to  become  before  long  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, and  principal  port  of  British  New  Guinea. 

Indirectly  also,  exploration  owed  much  to  the  mission- 
aries. Something  of  the  initial  stimulus  came  from  them, 
D'Albertis  attributes  to  Macfarlane  the  first  suggestion 
of  exploring  the  Fly  River ;  ^  Mr  Lindt  suggests  that  a 
conversation  with  Lawes  and  a  promise  of  hospitality 
in  1885  encouraged  him  to  visit  New  Guinea  ;  *  and  a 
letter  of  Chalmers  to  the  "  Town  and  Country  Journal  " 
in  1878  was  described  to  the  Secretary  of  State  as 
"very  favourable  to  the  country,"  and  "certain  to 
stimulate  of  (sic)  new  the  zeal  of  all  the  adventurers  in 
Australia."  ^ 

*  E.g.,  Notes  on  New  Guinea  and  its  Inhabitants  in  R.G.S.,  1880,  ii. 
p.  G02,  dealing  chiefly  w-ith  the  inhabitants  under  headings  such  as 
native  customs,  occupations,  houses,  canoes,  government,  moral  con- 
dition. 

Pioneering  in  New  Guinea,  J.  Chalmers,  1887,  pp.  162-188,  in 
which  the  customs,  habits  and  beliefs  of  the  Motumotu  and  Motu 
tribes  are  tabulated  in  a  manner  very  useful  to  traders  and 
administrators. 

*  Sydney  Morning  Herald,  loc.  cit. 
'  Loc.  cit.,  vol.  ii.  p.  3. 

*  Picturesque  New  Guinea.     J.  W.  Lindt  (1887),  Preface. 

'  Acting-High  Commissioner  Gorrie  to  Sir  M.  Hicks-Beach,  October  14, 
878.     (PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  p.  87.) 


52  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

Many  explorers  could  not  have  reached  New  Guinea 
as  easily  and  safely  as  they  did  had  not  passages  been 
given  to  them  in  the  mission  steamer  Ellengowan, 
Octavius  Stone  in  1875,  Goldie  in  1877,  Armit  in  1885, 
and  others  made  use  of  the  steamer;  and  indeed  both 
D'Albertis  and  Stone  in  1875  went  in  her  with  Macfarlane 
on  exploring  trips  to  the  Fly  River  and  Stone  to  the 

,  Baxter  River. 

^  Travellers  were  always  certain  to  receive  help  and 
hospitaUty  at  the  missionary  stations.  It  is  rarely 
indeed  that  a  book  on  travel  in  British  New  Guinea  does 
not  contain  a  grateful  tribute  to  the  kindness  of  the 
missionaries.  Dr  Otto  Finsch,  who  in  1882  found  at 
Port  Moresby  "  an  excellent  field  for  his  anthropological 
studies  .  .  .  thanks  to  the  little  interference  with  native 
customs  on  the  part  of  the  missionaries,"  acknowledges 
"  a  friendly  w^elcome,"  an  empty  house  being  placed  at 
his  disposal.^  Macfarlane  in  the  early  days  at  Somerset 
provided  Stone  with  stores  in  the  absence  of  some  ordered 
from  Brisbane,  in  order  that  the  expedition  of  September 
1875  should  not  be  indefinitely  delayed.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  multiply  instances.  For  our  purpose  the 
attitude  of  the  missionaries  to  strangers  has  been  ade- 
quately summed  up  by  the  Chairman  of  a  Royal  Com- 
mission in  1906.  "  Their  homes,"  declared  Colonel 
Mackay,  "  have  always  been  centres  of  hospitality  .  .  . 
while  their  wives  have  nursed  many  a  fever-stricken 
wanderer  back  to  health."  ^ 

^  And  these  relatively  unimportant  acts  ought  not  to 
be  forgotten;  for  they  must  have  had  a  cumulative 
influence  on  the  enterprise  of  those  who  sought  trade. 


1  R.G.S,,  vi.,  1884,  P'  38. 

*  Across  Papua.     Col.  K.  Mackay  (i^oy),  p.  40. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  53 

specimens,  or  adventure  in  New  Guinea,  and  they  must 
have  helped  to  lessen  the  creaks  of  the  crude  machinery  of 
civilization  in  its  irregular  advance.  Advice  and  warning 
as  to  the  best  way  to  approach  the  savage  inhabitants 
no  doubt  gained  added  force  in  coming  from  those  who 
showed  such  a  sincere  desire  to  soften  the  process  of 
invasion,  not  merely  for  the  invaded,  but  also  for  the 
invader. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   ANNEXATION    CONTROVERSY 

By  their  services  of  exploration  the  missionaries  prepared 
the  way  for  the  expansion  of  a  European  race  in  New 
Guinea.  They  were  the  first  to  penetrate  the  barrier  of 
mystery  which  had  protected  the  savage  race  Uving 
there  from  European  visitors,^  and  they  placed  the 
knowledge  thus  gained  at  the  disposal  of  any  lay  ex- 
plorers who  needed  it. 

A  writer  in  the  'sixties  drew  attention  to  the  reports  of 
navigators  that  it  was  "  a  rich  and  magnificent  country," 
but  added  that  "  at  present  the  hostile  disposition  of  its 
savage  occupants  renders  it  inaccessible  to  European 
explorers."  Fears  such  as  these  delayed  the  exploration 
of  the  country  until  the  missionaries  visited  it,  who, 
although  more  concerned  to  gain  converts  than  to  make 
geographical  discoveries  yet,  incidentally  to  their  main 
purpose,  acted  as  explorers.  In  this  way  they  did  much 
to  remove  the  feeling  of  awe  with  which  this  cannibal 
land  had  been  regarded,  and  to  foster  in  the  public 
mind  a  feeling  of  confidence  in  the  possibiUties  of  its 
colonization. 

Although  there  is  sometimes  a  tendency  to  overrate  the 
dangers  to  which  pioneer  missionaries  are  exposed,  in  the 
case  of  those  who  went  to  New  Guinea  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, to  their  credit,  that  the  current  opinion  of  the 

^  Australia :  Its  Rise,  Progress  and  Present  Condition.  W.  Westgarth, 
1861,  p.  132. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  55 

savagery  of  the  inhabitants  was  such  that,  when  the 
Colonial  Secretary  told  the  New  Guinea  Company  in 
1867  that  adventurers  "  must  neither  look  for  aid  nor 
protection  from  the  national  forces,"  the  Company 
thought  the  risks  too  great  to  proceed  with  the  enterprise.^ 

And  in  1874  the  Governor  of  New  South  Wales,  in  reply 
to  the  request  of  Lord  Carnarvon  for  his  opinion  upon 
annexation,  said  :  "  At  present  there  is  not  throughout  the 
whole  of  New  Guinea  one  European  resident,  not  even 
a  missionary,  and  the  Papuans  are  savages  of  a  type 
which  experience  has  shown  .  .  .  incapable  of  becoming 
civilized."  He  laid  great  stress  upon  the  fact  that  the 
inhabitants  were  "  warlike  cannibals."  ^ 

In  December  1874,  however,  the  London  Missionary 
Society  moved  the  headquarters  of  the  mission  from  Cape 
York  to  Port  Moresby,  and  in  1877  Lawes  was  joined 
there  by  Chalmers,  who  lost  no  time  in  showing  that  by 
approaching  the  natives  in  a  friendly  and  not  a  menacing 
manner  it  was  possible  to  explore  the  country  and  to  live 
there,  if  not  in  security,  at  least  in  comparative  safety. 

The  effect  was  immediate.  Individual  adventurers 
such  as  Goldie,  and,  early  in  1878,  gold  prospectors,  were 
no  longer  afraid  to  enter  the  country,^  and  fresh  interest 
was  aroused  in  Austraha  by  the  reports  sent  back  by  the 
missionaries  of  the  possibilities  of  developing  the  country, 
and  of  civiUzing  the  natives  hitherto  believed  to  be  "in- 
capable of  becoming  civilized." 

The  Council  of  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute  seized  the 
opportunity  to  re-open  the  annexation  controversy,  by 
arguing  that  as  the  Papuan  was  now  being  brought  more 
in  contact  with  white  men  the  question  of  the  control  of 

1  PP.  1876.  c.  1566,  p.  27. 

»  September  7,  1874.  PP.  1876,  c.  1566,  p.  12. 

*  See  post,  p.  7O. 


56  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

this  increasing  influx  had  become  acute.^  And  Mr  F.  P. 
LabiUiere,  who  had  originally  opened  the  question,^  was 
able  to  reply  ^  to  Sir  H.  Robinson's  statement  of  1874 
that  not  even  a  missionary  was  in  the  island,  by  pointing 
out  that  "  now  several  missionaries  have  been  for  some 
time  permanently  established  there." 

The  stimulus  which  Chalmers  gave  to  the  movement 
for  annexation  was  thus  important,  but  it  was  from  the 
first,  and  continued  to  be  until  the  final  decision,  the 
stimulus  of  example.  For  Chalmers's  name  hardly  figures 
at  all  in  the  correspondence  of  the  annexation  controversy. 

Other  missionaries,  however,  took  a  prominent  part  in 
it  and  supported  those  who  pressed  for  annexation  with 
the  same  kind  of  arguments.     These  were  mainly  three. 

First,  the  strategic  argument — that,  should  a  foreign 
power  obtain  command  of  Torres  Straits  and  of  the 
harbours  of  New  Guinea,  British  commerce  would  be 
endangered,  since  traffic  through  the  straits  was  said  to 
be  rapidly  increasing.* 

Secondly,  the  necessity  to  control  immigration  in  order 
to  avoid  evils  brought  upon  the  native  population  of 
other  islands  such  as  Fiji,  where  the  whites  had  first 
entered  uncontrolled.^ 

Thirdly,  the  possibility  of  a  foreign  power  making  a 
penal  settlement  there,  with  its  resulting  menace  to  the 
order  and  security  of  AustraUan  colonists.^ 

1  July  9,  1878.     PP.  1883,  c.  3617. 

«  March  26,  1874.     PP.  1876,  c.  1566. 

'  September  18,  1878.     PP.  1883,  c.  3617. 

•  Labilliere  to  Ld.  Carnarvon,  loc.  cit.  PP.  1876,  c.  1566.  A.  Michie, 
Agent-General  Victoria  at  the  R.C.I.,  March  16,  1875.  Sir  P. 
Scratchley.  AustraUan  Defenc&s  and  New  Guinea,  G.  K.  Cooke,  1887, 
pp.  243-257. 

•  Labilliere,  loc.  cit.,  1874. 

•  A  point  first  raised  by  Rev.  W.  W.  Gill  to  Colonial  Treasurer, 
January  28,  1873,  cited  by  Sir  H.  Robinson,  loc.  cit.,  September  7, 1874. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  S7 

It  appears  that  of  these  three  the  first  carried  most 
weight,  and  in  fact  the  actual  decision  of  Queensland  to 
take  formal  possession  was  justified  to  the  home  Govern- 
ment on  the  grounds  that  it  was  necessary  "  to  prevent 
foreign  powers  from  taking  possession."  ^ 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  missionaries  like  Gill  and 
Macfarlane,  who  were  eager  for  annexation,  did  not  lay 
stress  upon  the  second  argument,  but  grasped  clearly 
the  poUtical  as  distinct  from  the  ethical  issues  involved, 
and  spoke  and  wrote  from  the  orthodox  political  stand- 
point. Hence  they  often  took  the  political  view  of 
missionary  work  and  saw  the  value  of  the  latter  in  its 
ability  to  "  open  up  the  country."  This  was  the  phrase 
used  in  a  discussion  at  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  in 
1873  by  Rev.  S.  Macfarlane,  who  recognized  the  strategic 
value  of  New  Guinea,  and  emphasized  its  wealth,  in- 
cluding gold,  but  thought  that  missionary  enterprise 
was  first  necessary.  2  A  little  over  a  year  later,  during  a 
discussion  provoked  by  a  paper  from  Captain  Moresby, 
the  President  of  the  R.G.S.  took  a  similar  view  and 
thought  that  England  should  be  content  with  a  gradual 
progress  achieved  by  the  pioneers,  such  as  the  mis- 
sionaries. ^  Thus  both  regarded  the  missionaries  as  the 
forerunners  of  British  ImperiaUsm.* 

Again,  Sir  H.  Robinson,  in  his  unfavourable  comment 
upon  the  annexationist  policy  (September  7,  1874),  en- 
closed for  the  information  of  Lord  Carnarvon  a  letter 
written  to  the  Colonial  Treasurer  by  Rev.  W.  W.  Gill 
(January  28,  1873),  who  suggested  that  the  time  for 
British  expansion  in  New  Guinea  had  not  yet  arrived. 

»  Hansard,  1883,  v.  278,  c.  324,  Agent-General  to  Lord  Derby. 
«  R.G.S.,  November  24,  1873. 
»  Ibid.,  February  22,  1875. 
*  Compare  ante,  pp.  10-18. 


58  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

"  Meantime,"  Gill  added,  "  we  hope  gradually  by  mis- 
sionary and  colonial  enterprise  to  open  up  this  vast 
unknown  country." 

Gill  made  his  attitude  perfectly  clear  by  stating  that 
he  wrote  "as  an  Englishman  "  rather  than  "  as  repre- 
senting any  religious  society,"  and  as  one  who  hoped  that 
"  should  our  missionary  enterprise  happily  succeed,  the 
interests  of  EngHsh  colonization  and  civiHzation  will  be 
effectually  promoted."  And  he  declared  emphatically 
that  New  Guinea  should  be  kept  free  from  any  foreign 
power.  "  At  any  cost  (save  the  dire  curse  of  war),"  he 
urged,  "  let  not  the  rich  prize  fall  into  other  hands."  ^ 

Although,  as  the  controversy  developed,  the  mis- 
sionaries came  to  lay  more  stress  upon  the  second 
argument,  the  protection  of  the  natives — Lawes  for 
instance  made  the  influx  of  gold-seekers  a  reason  for 
demanding  the  estabhshment  of  British  authority  in 
New  Guinea  ^ — with  the  exception  of  Chalmers  they 
never  did  more  than  lend  support  to  the  arguments  used 
by  administrators  and  other  laymen,^  and  their  peculiar 
profession  failed  to  lend  a  distinctiveness  to  their  point 
of  view. 

To  Chalmers  the  problem  appeared  in  quite  a  different 

1  pp.  1876,  c.  1566.     See  ante,  p.  56. 

a  PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  p.  100.  Received  at  the  CO.,  January  31,  1879, 
by  which  time  the  Secretary  of  State  had  already  informed  Sir  A. 
Gordon  (December  31,  1878)  that  in  consequence  of  the  final  failure  of 
the  gold  expedition  in  October  it  was  now  "  unnecessary  to  entertain 
the  question  of  the  annexation  of  New  Guinea," 

3  E.g.  Rev.  H.  R.  McDonald,  a  missionary,  addressed  a  meeting  in 
Melbourne,  July  16,  1883,  and  supported  the  Mayor  in  a  deputation 
afterwards  to  the  Governor  of  Victoria.  PP.  1883,  c.  3814,  p.  4,  and 
PP.  1884,  c.  3863,  p.  II.     See  ante,  pp.  40,  41. 

A  resolution  was  laid  before  the  Inter-Colonial  Convention,  November 
II,  1883,  from  three  religious  bodies,  and  included  a  letter  from  J.  G. 
Paton.     PP.  1884,  c.  3863,  pp.  153,  i6i. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  59 

light.  The  important  question  for  him  was  not  Who 
should  govern  New  Guinea,  but  How  New  Guinea  should 
be  governed.  His  influence  in  deciding  the  first  question 
was  probably  negligible  ;  but  it  was  very  far  from 
negligible  in  deciding  the  second. 

It  is  curious  that  Chalmers,  who  was  not  much  inter- 
ested in  the  first,  apart  from  its  connexion  with  the 
second,  should  have  been  mainly  responsible  for  raising 
it  by  the  stimulus  given  to  enterprise  by  his  active  work 
in  New  Guinea.  Unconsciously  and  unwillingl}^  he  had 
cut  a  path  for  his  countrymen  to  enter,  and  trade,  and 
settle,  in  their  own  interests,  when  he  had  only  thought 
of  making  a  channel  along  which  the  interests  of  the 
natives  could  be  served. 

The  view  of  Chalmers  was  radically  different  from  that 
of  the  imperiaHst  missionaries.  For,  Uke  Marsden,  he 
took  an  ethical  and  religious  view  of  politics,  judging 
political  action,  such  as  annexation,  by  the  criterion  of 
its  effect  upon  the  native  race  whether  it  would  aid 
or  hinder  them  in  their  progress  towards  the  ideal  of 
a  Christian  nation,  and  refusing  to  consider  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity  as  a  method  of  preparing  the  way 
for  British  expansion. 

Chalmers  could  not  change  his  ideal  by  speaking,  "  not 
as  representing  any  religious  society,"  ^  and  where  Gill 
was  fired  with  patriotic  enthusiasm,  Chalmers  was  most 
eloquent  when  he  pleaded  for  the  interests  of  New  Guinea, 
"  the  land  of  his  adoption."  ^ 

But  although,  like  Marsden,  he  could  never  have 
acquiesced  in  a  cross  raised  by  a  British  missionary  as  a 
sj^mbol  of  British  poUtical  dominion  after  the  manner  of 
Magellan,  yet  the  intervening  years  since  Marsden  saw 

1  Rev.  W.  Gill,  loc.  cit. 

«  R.C.I. ,  January  nth,  1887,  vol.  xviii.  p.  104. 


6o  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

the  British  flag  as  a  symbol  of  Christian  politics  had 
left  behind  them  disappointment  and  bitterness,  and 
Chalmers  could  hold  no  illusions  about  the  evils  possible 
under  British  rule. 

Although  he  was  reconciled  to  the  Protectorate  by  the 
manner  in  which  Commodore  Erskine  had  proclaimed  it, 
and  by  the  pledge  contained  in  the  proclamation,  yet  he 
could  not  control  an  expression  of  his  almost  cynical  view 
of  British  expansion  when  the  British  flag  was  hoisted  on 
the  top  of  Cloudy  Mountain,  and  wrote  in  his  journal, 
"  In  solitude  as  well  as  busy  scenes  Britain's  voice  must 
be  heard  !  Some  Britons  think  the  world  was  made  for 
the  Anglo-Saxon."  ^ 

Chalmers  had  only  one  desire,  to  serve  the  natives  and 
to  bring  them  to  see  the  Christian  vision,  and  around  that 
aim  all  his  sympathies  were  centred  and,  for  its  achieve- 
ment, he  was  ready  to  use  any  method  which  proved 
suitable. 

Unlike  the  missionaries  of  Rotumah  he  realized  that 
mental  and  industrial  development  were  equally  neces- 
sary to  the  native  as  conversion,  while  in  contrast  to 
Macfarlane,  who  noted  the  wealth  of  the  country,  and 
believed  the  conversion  of  the  natives  would  enable  his 
countrymen  to  possess  it,  Chalmers  saw  in  commerce 
with  the  natives,  under  restriction,  a  means  of  civiHzing 
them.  "  Teach  our  natives,  encourage  them  in  trade," 
he  said,  "  and  I  feel  sure  they  will  never  want  your 
charity."  2 

Every  factor  in  the  position  or  prospects  of  the  country 
was  fitted  by  Chalmers  into  his  plan  to  develop  New 
Guinea  for  the  natives  and  by  the  natives  ;  and  he  hoped 
that  no  attempt  would  be  made  to  force  British  civiliza- 

*  Pioneering  in  New  Guinea,  p.  196. 

*  January  11,  1887,  R.C.I.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  105. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  6i 

tion  upon  them,  but  that  "  a  more  suitable  and  better 
civiUzation  should  be  theirs."  ^ 

This  was  the  distinctive  background  to  Chalmers's 
opinion  of  the  three  arguments  used  in  favour  of  annexa- 
tion, and  explains  his  neglect  to  take  a  prominent  part 
in  the  annexation  controversy,  which  was  to  settle  Who 
was  to  govern  New  Guinea,  and  not  How  it  was  to  be 
governed. 

Because  Chalmers  made  the  fulfilment  of  the  pledge 
the  aim  of  policy  he  was  non-committal  in  his  view  upon 
annexation  when  he  made  his  only  important  considered 
statement  upon  it. 

"  If  for  the  sake  of  defending  our  colonies  from  foreign 
aggression,"  he  declared,  "  a  protectorate  is  sufficient  to 
prevent  the  intrusion  of  another  power,  I  would  advocate 
leaving  N.G.  under  the  protectorate,  provided  that  it  is 
possible  to  carry  out  the  proclamation.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  annexation  would  be  a  benefit  to  the  natives  and  a 
necessity  to  Austraha,  I  would  support  the  proposal  to 
annex  the  country."  ^ 

Thus  in  Chalmers's  eyes  it  was  not  a  sufficient  recom- 
mendation that  the  protection  of  the  native  should  follow 
upon  annexation.  To  be  justified  annexation  must 
"  benefit  "  the  natives.  He  thought  always  more  of  the 
duty  the  white  race  owed  to  the  brown  than  of  the  rights 
which  might  be  asserted  by  the  white  race  without  doing 
harm  to  the  other. 

The  avowed  imperialists,  both  lay  and  missionary,  took 
a  negative  view  of  the  rights  of  the  native,  and  considered 
that  justice  was  done  if  those  rights,  as  conceived  by 
themselves,  were  not  injured  in  the  carrying  out  of  their 
positive  policy,  which  was  to  seize   and  develop   the 

*  Ibid.,  p.  105. 

» Ibid.y  p.  104.     (Italics  are  the  author's.) 


62  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

country  in  their  own  national  interests.  Chalmers,  on 
the  other  hand,  took  a  positive  view  of  the  rights  of  the 
native,  and  believed  that  it  was  unjust  to  the  native  to 
stop  short  at  protecting  them  from  oppression,  and  that 
the  chief  duty  of  the  expanding  race  was  to  educate  as 
well  as  to  protect  the  native,  and  that  its  own  alleged 
right  to  share  in  the  prosperity  caused  by  the  develop- 
ment of  the  country,  and  by  the  civilizing  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, did  not  exist  apart  from  its  duty  to  them,  and 
lapsed  if  it  became  inconsistent  with  that  duty. 

He  was  strengthened  in  his  position  by  the  arguments 
the  annexationists  put  forward.  These  laid  much  stress 
on  the  strategic  value  of  New  Guinea,  upon  the  import- 
ance of  its  position  rather  than  of  its  soil  or  of  its  labour, 
and  they  were  more  concerned  to  keep  Germany  and 
France  from  fortifying  its  harbours  or  from  placing  a  penal 
settlement  there,  than  to  make  use  of  the  resources  of 
the  country.  So  that  Chalmers  must  have  felt  that  his 
audience  at  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute  would  not  be 
unsympathetic  to  him  when  he  declared  :  "  Annexation 
cannot  be  asked  for  on  the  plea  of  need  for  land.  We 
need  no  more  territory  whilst  Australia  ...  is  still  un- 
occupied and  will  be  so  for  another  century."  He  was 
afraid  annexation  would  lead  to  injustice  towards  the 
native,  because  "  the  young,  pushing,  daring  Anglo- 
Saxon  "  would  see  in  every  native  right  an  impediment 
to  colonization.^  From  the  time  when  he  had  realized 
that  the  strategic  value  of  New  Guinea  might  lead  to  its 
annexation,  2  he  had  also  reaUzed  that  because  its  value 
was  mainly  strategic,  an  unrivalled  opportunity  would 
be  offered  of  governing  it  entirely  for  the  benefit  of  the 
native  inhabitants. 

^  January  ii,  1887,  R.CJ.,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  104. 
2  Work  and  Adventure  in  New  Guinea,  p.  17. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  63 

It  is  not,  however,  entirely  true  to  say  that  Chahners 
was  uninterested  in  the  question  of  Who  should  govern 
New  Guinea.  For  instance,  he  supported  Lawes  against 
it  being  "  handed  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of 
Queensland."  ^ 

But  he  was  only  interested  in  Who  should  govern  it  as 
far  as  it  affected  the  possibiUty  of  its  good  government. 
This  is  where  his  view  contrasts  vividly  with  the  Im- 
perialist. For  the  latter  was  content  to  leave  the  question 
of  How  the  country  was  to  be  governed  until  the  first 
question  was  settled — ^being  prepared  to  stake  a  decision 
upon  the  question  Who  ?  upon  grounds  of  Imperial 
policy.  For  if  the  Imperialist  ever  thought  of  the  effect 
alternative  forms  of  government  would  have  upon  New 
Guinea  itself,  he  did  not  speculate  upon  the  future  of 
the  native,  but  upon  the  future  of  the  settlers  there, 
separated  from  Queensland  by  a  comparatively  short 
extent  of  sea.  Much  of  the  desire  to  protect  the  native 
from  outrage  came  from  the  wish  to  protect  the  traders 
from  reprisals,  and  not  from  any  strong  sympathy  with 
the  native  race.  In  fact.  Lord  Derby  stated  that  prior 
to  the  independent  action  of  Queensland,  the  Agent- 
General  for  that  colony  had  put  before  him  amongst 
other  arguments  in  support  of  annexation,  that  since 
New  Guinea  was  practically  beyond  the  reach  of  British 
law  it  was  becoming  or  was  soon  hkely  to  become  the 
resort  of  bad  characters  of  all  kinds,  and  these  might 
become  "  a  serious  source  of  annoyance  to  the  Colonies."  ^ 

Had  Chalmers  and  not  Archer  put  forward  arguments 
for  annexation  on  that  occasion  he  would  have  said  that 
the  bad  characters  were  likely  to  become  a  serious  source 
of  annoyance  to  the  natives. 

^  Chalmers's  Autobiography,  p.  238. 
•  April  20,  1883.     Hansard,  278,  c.  'jiS, 


64  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

It  is  possible  to  argue  that  Chalmers  was  conceited  in 
imagining  that  Lawes  and  he  were  "  the  only  possible 
interpreters  "  and  "  alone  "  had  the  confidence  of  the 
natives.^  But  that  he  agreed  with  Lawes  in  preferring 
Crown  Colony  rule  when  there  was  a  prospect  of  Queens- 
land controlling  the  country ;  ^  and  that,  when  this 
prospect  faded,  he  was  inclined  to  prefer  a  protectorate 
governed  by  a  Special  Commissioner,  to  Crown  Colony 
rule,^  does  not  show  him  to  have  been  inconsistent  as  well 
as  conceited.  For  from  the  start  he  never  moved  from 
the  position  that  it  was  the  interests  of  the  native  race 
that  were  important,  and  that  any  form  of  government 
which  insured  the  full  performance  of  what  he  considered 
to  be  the  duty  of  a  Christian  nation  to  the  native  race 
was  worthy  of  support. 

Perhaps  too  much  space  has  been  devoted  to  an 
attempted  explanation  of  Chalmers's  attitude  to  the 
annexation  controversy,  but  it  is  his  attitude  to  that 
controversy  which  gives  the  key  to  the  nature  of  his 
influence  upon  the  colonial  statesmanship  of  his  day. 

^  Chalmers's  Autobiography,  p.  261.  '  Ibid.,  p.  237. 

8  R.C.I. ,  January  11,  1887,  p.  13. 


CHAPTER  III 

PEACEMAKING 

The  missionaries  resident  in  New  Guinea,  led  by 
Chalmers,  endeavoured  from  the  first  to  secure  that 
British  immigration  should  be  an  inflowing  of  educa- 
tors rather  than  exploiters.  The  problem  of  adjust- 
ment arising  out  of  the  impact  of  a  "  civilized  "  upon 
a  "  savage  "  race  demanded  a  solution  in  the  Pacific 
long  before  the  Government  became  officially  the  source 
of  energy  behind  the  immigration.  In  the  case  of  New 
Guinea  the  missionaries  did  much  towards  solving  the 
problem  before  the  protectorate  was  established,  and 
aided  the  Government  to  find  a  more  complete  and 
perfect  solution  afterwards.  Their  influence  took  both 
a  direct  and  an  indirect  form. 

Their  influence  was  direct  in  that  they  impressed  the 
natives  by  their  patience  and  devotion,  that  the  white 
men  were  their  friends,  and  also  by  their  ad\'ice  and 
practical  assistance  they  induced  the  white  men  to 
assume  and  maintain  an  attitude  of  friendship  towards 
the  natives. 

It  was  indirect  in  that  they  pulled  pohtical  strings 
to  effect  this  whenever  direct  influence  was  found  to 
be  impotent. 

As  it  has  already  been  pointed  out,  much  of  the  original 
exploration  work  in  what  afterwards  became  British  New 
Guinea  was  undertaken  by  the  missionaries,  so  that 
the  natives  of  a  great  part  of  the  island  came  first  in 


66  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

contact  with  the  nobler  representatives  of  Western 
civihzation. 

It  was  well  for  British  New  Guinea  that  this  was  so. 
Even  in  the  history  of  this  fortunate  dependency  however, 
there  is  ample  evidence  of  the  difficulties  bequeathed 
to  the  Government  by  the  ill-considered  action  of  lay 
pioneers. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  both  the  Polynesian  and 
the  Papuan  is  "a  shy  suspicious  timidity,"  ^  which 
renders  them  ready  to  use  their  weapons  on  a  stranger. 
This  is  coupled  with  a  vivid  memory  of  injuries  com- 
mitted against  them.^  It  was,  therefore,  of  more  than 
usual  importance  in  this  case,  that  the  first  white  men 
with  whom  the  natives  came  in  contact  should  do 
nothing  to  stimulate  the  immediate  suspicion  of  the 
inhabitants  from  fear  to  hatred,  but  rather  should  do 
their  utmost  to  allay  that  suspicion.  Not  merely  dis- 
interested motives  in  favour  of  what  prove,  too  often, 
to  be  the  unfortunate  aboriginals,  but  also  selfishly  com- 
mercial motives  should  demand  that  tact  and  patience, 
rather  than  violence,  be  used  in  order  to  lay  a  secure 
foundation  for  future  intercourse  between  the  invaded 
and  the  invader. 

But  the  ordinary  explorer  is  sometimes  unfortunately 
so  intent  upon  his  maps  or  his  collecting-boxes,  that, 
like  D'Albertis,  he  is  not  greatly  disturbed  if  he  opens 
up  the  country  "  by  frightening  the  natives  away  from 

1  British  New  Guinea,  Country  and  People.  Sir  W.  Macgregor,  1897, 
p.  36. 

2  "  It  is  a  humiliating  but  undoubted  fact  that  the  more  natives 
have  been  in  contact  with  white  men  the  more  difficult  they  are  of 
access."  This  is  explained,  Romilly  writes,  by  their  vivid  memory. 
"  Those  who  have  had  no  experience  of  white  men  have  no  injuries 
to  avenge."  {Western  Pacific  and  New  Guinea.  H.  H.  Romilly,  1886, 
pp.  16,  17.) 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  67 

their  villages  and  ransacking  them  for  specimens."  * 
Sir  William  Macgregor  testified  to  the  harm  wrought  by 
this  explorer  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society  in  1895,  declaring  that  even  by  that 
time  the  natives  on  the  Upper  Fly  River,  whose  tribe 
had  been  in  contact  with  D'Albertis  in  1875,  could  not 
be  trusted,  but  those  near  the  frontier  did  not  appear 
to  be  hostile.2  Of  other  expeditions,  that  of  the  Age 
newspaper  in  1883  failed  with  the  loss  of  stores,  and  the 
wounding  of  its  leader,  owing  to  unwise  use  of  firearms, 
and  the  neglect  of  a  native  warning ;  ^  and  that  of 
H.  O.  Forbes  in  1887  was  cut  short  by  flight  from  the 
opposition,  aroused  by  the  reckless  violence  of  a  member 
of  the  expedition  towards  a  native.*  Even  Theodore 
Be  van,  who  proudly  claims  to  have  carried  out  his 
expeditions  successfully  without  having  taken  the  life 
of  a  single  native,  supporting  this  with  the  testimony 
of  the  Hon.  J.  Douglas,  on  one  occasion  acted  contrary 

^  Prof.  Haddon  to  the  R.G.S.,  February  25,  1895,  quoted  by 
Macgregor,  loc.  cit.,  p.  97. 

*  Macgregor,  loc.  cit.,  p.  15. 

The  responsibility  must  unhappily  be  shared  by  Rev.  S.  Macfarlane, 
who  suggested  the  first  expedition  in  1875,  and  accompanied  it  in 
the  mission  steamer  Ellengowan,  and  apparently  did  not  protest  when 
at  the  very  start  D'Albertis  frightened  native  canoes  away  by  firing 
over  and  at  them.     (D'Albertis,  loc  cit.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  21,  et  seq.) 

3  Deputy-Commissioner  Romilly  reports,  November  20,  1883,  to 
Acting-High  Commissioner  for  Western  Pacific.  PP.  1884,  c.  4126, 
pp.  17,  18. 

"  The  two  so-called  exploring  expeditions  have  done  no  good.  One 
of  them  has  unfortunately  done  much  harm  "  .  .  .  "  Morrison,  a  boy 
of  twenty -one,  of  the  Age,  reached  a  point  "  certainly  not  more  than  22 
miles  from  the  coast  "  (though  he  claimed  to  have  gone  nearly  100 
miles  from  the  sea).  "  He  arrived  at  Port  Moresby  wounded  in  two 
places.  His  rifles  and  ammunition  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  natives." 
(Morrison  afterwards  achieved  fame  as  the  Pekin  correspondent  of 
The  Times.) 

*  Report  of  Special  Commissioner.     PP.  1888,  c.  5249-31,  pp.  64-68. 


68  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

to  the  advice  of  those  who  were  doing  their  best  to  pre- 
pare the  country  for  settlement  without  bloodshed,  by 
going  upon  a  trading  trip  to  a  hostile  district  in  defiance 
of  a  warning  from  an  official,  considering  it  a  case 
for  "  self-assertion."  But  both  he  and  others  were 
fortunate  in  apparently  not  having  to  pay  for  such 
recklessness.  1 

Fortunately  for  British  New  Guinea,  although  it  was 
reported  by  a  visiting  correspondent  that  the  relations 
of  exploring  parties  with  the  natives  in  some  instances 
"  have  been  very  unfriendly,"  and  that  "  the  effect 
of  this  on  the  native  mind  is  lasting,"  these  instances 
were  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule.^  And  this  it 
cannot  be  too  often  repeated,  was  a  vital  matter,  for  in 
a  savage  country  the  echoes  of  a  shot  fired  at  random 
do  not  die  away  in  a  single  generation,  or  sound  only  in 
a  small  district,  but  the  whisper  is  heard  by  natives  a 
hundred  miles  away,  and  animates  the  revengeful  club 
or  spear  perhaps  more  than  thirty  years  later. 

The  reason  for  such  bitterness  being  largely  saved 
to  New  Guinea  was  not  only  that  so  much  of  the  original 
exploration  work  was  carried  out  by  Chalmers,  but  that 
both  he  and  Lawes  assisted  other  explorers  by  advice, 
by  practical  help,  and  by  the  extent  of  their  influence 
even  in  villages  which  had  never  seen  them.^  Well 
might  La  Meslee  declare  that  the  advent  of  the  mission- 
aries marks  a  new  period  in  the  history  of  New  Guinea 


1  British  New  Guinea.     T.  Bevan,  1890,  p.  137,  et  seq. 

»  C.  Lyne,  New  Guinea,  1885,  p.  229. 

'  Strangers  are  asked  if  they  know  Tamate  ;  if  so,  are  treated  with 
kindness.  To  many  tribes  who  have  never  seen  him  he  is  "  a  mighty 
sorcerer,"  and  all  like  to  inquire  about  him.  Sir  Peter  Scratchley 
(Special  Commissioner  for  British  Protectorate,  1885),  Australian 
Defences  and  New  Guinea,  loc.  cit.,  p.  360. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  6^ 

exploration.  "  To  the  great  credit  of  the  missionaries, 
their  efforts  have  been  attended  with  the  best  effects  ; 
the  Papuans  have  been  made  to  understand  the  pacific 
intentions  of  the  white  man."  ^ 

Chalmers  was  not  content  with  giving  advice  upon  the 
spot  to  those  who  sought  it,  but  gave  it  wider  circulation 
in  1885,  by  pubHshing  papers,  containing  detailed  in- 
formation for  prospective  visitors,  how  to  approach 
natives  for  the  first  time,  how  to  avoid  arousing  sus- 
picion by  thoughtless  acts,  how  to  recognize  signs  of 
friendship  or  of  hostiUty  in  the  position  and  move- 
ment of  their  weapons,  in  their  dress,  in  the  action 
of  a  limb  or  the  glance  of  an  eye,  emphasizing  the 
fact  that  armed  natives  are  not  necessarily  hostile, 
but  uttering  an  oft-repeated  warning  to  "  get  away 
as  quickly  and  quietly  as  possible "  at  the  first  hint 
of  danger.  2  That  such  advice  was  timely  was  shown 
the  same  year  by  the  murder  of  Captain  Fryer  and 
three  others,  who  met  their  death  as  the  result  of 
negligence  and  rashness.^ 

Sometimes  the  missionaries  had  to  try  to  repair  the 
harm  caused  by  those  who  acted  thus.  As  soon  as 
Morrison  returned  with  news  of  failure,  and  of  a  brush 
with  the  natives,  Chalmers  left  for  the  Varigadi  villages, 
to  inquire  the  reason  for  the  hostiHty  of  the  natives,  and 

*  Sydney  Morning  Herald,  June  26,  1883.  La  Meslee  recalled  that 
Alexander  Morton,  the  naturalist,  who  accompanied  Goldie  in  1877, 
was  asked  by  the  timid  natives  whether  they  were  friends  of  Lawes, 
and  on  hearing  so,  "  they  immediately  became  friendly."  "  The 
missionary  referred  to  had  never  been  in  this  part  of  the  district,  but 
his  name  was  known  to  the  natives  as  a  byword  of  peace,  and  the 
simple  fact  that  the  white  men  were  his  friends  \s'a»  sufi&cient  to  ensure 
a  good  reception." 

■  Pioneering  in  Ntw  Guima,  1887,  pp.  66,  1^9-132. 

'  For  an  account  of  the  inquiry  into  Fryer's  murder,  see  PP.  i886> 
51-Sess.  II.,  p.  36. 


70  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

to  make  peace  with  them,  and  to  re-estabUsh  their  con- 
fidence in  the  white  man.^ 

That  Chalmers  in  his  own  exploration  work  practised, 
as  well  as  taught,  the  peaceful  method  of  approaching  the 
natives,  is  borne  out  by  the  resulting  devotion  of  those 
who  knew  or  heard  of  him.^  Something  of  the  story  of  it 
can  be  found  by  the  curious  in  his  published  letters  and 
writings.  Let  it  suffice  here  to  lay  stress  on  the  im- 
portance he  attached  to  going  amongst  the  natives 
unarmed,  and  trusting  to  presence  of  mind,  and  a  quick, 
vivid  imagination  to  save  him  in  danger.^  "  I  can  do 
more  for  the  natives  unarmed,"  he  wrote ;  and  so  he 
went  amongst  them  with  a  walking-stick.* 

It  may  of  course  be  objected  that  Chalmers  carried 
his  policy  to  the  verge  of  rashness,  and  that  he  eventually 
paid  for  it  with  his  life ;  but  had  he  shown  less  courage 
or  demanded  less  from  those  around  him,  he  would 
probably  only  have  purchased  the  immediate  safety  of 
himself  and  those  he  led,  at  the  price  of  a  long-continued 
hatred  for  white  men  in  general  on  the  part  of  the  tribes, 

1  R.G.S.,  vol.  vi.,  1884,  p.  217,  and  Pioneering  in  New  Guinea, 
p.  124  seq. 

2  "  The  fame  of  Tamate  has  been  noised  abroad,  so  that  people  from 
China  Straits  and  even  from  the  Louisiade  Archipelago  visit  him." 
H.  M.  Chester,  Magistrate  at  Thursday  Island  to  Colonial  Secretary, 
Brisbane,  August  30,  1878.     (PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  p.  80.) 

3  Work  and  Adventure  in  New  Guinea,  1885,  p.  213. 

*  G.  R.  Askwith  (Scratchley's  Secretary)  in  Australian  Defences  and 
New  Guinea,  p.  360. 

In  December  1877  an  attack  was  made  upon  the  mission  lugger 
Mayri,  the  captain  of  which  was  wounded.  Chester,  in  forwarding  the 
latter's  report  to  the  Colonial  Secretary,  Brisbane,  added  :  "It  appears 
they  (the  missionary  party)  have  firearms  but  Mr  Chalmers  will  not 
allow  them  to  be  loaded."  No  action  was  taken  against  the  natives 
by  H.M.S.  Sappho  beyond  warning  them.  (PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  pp.  47-51.) 
See  also  Ch.'aXm^rs's  Autobiography ,  pp.  146-151,  and  Work  and  Adventure 
in  New  Guinea,  p.  58-62. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  71 

so  that  New  Guinea,  like  New  Zealand,  might  have 
become  later  a  battle-ground  for  the  two  races. 

He  certainly  could  never  otherwise  have  obtained  that 
influence  over  the  natives  which  enabled  him,  and  in 
a  lesser  degree,  enabled  Lawes  to  render  such  conspicuous 
service  to  explorers,  and  gold-seekers,  and  to  the 
Protectorate. 

The  broad-minded  religious  poUcy  of  the  missionaries 
increased,  and  helped  to  maintain  the  influence  gained 
by  their  peaceful  bearing.  They  came  as  educators  as 
well  as  protectors,  and  they  were  careful  not  to  render 
the  principles  they  taught  unpopular,  by  attempting 
to  put  savages,  accustomed  to  hcence,  into  the  strait- 
waistcoat  of  European  convention.  They  emphasized 
their  creed,  not  by  trying  to  enforce  a  rigid  code  of 
European  manners,  but  by  interpreting  the  Christian 
inspiration  in  terms  suitable  to  a  different  climate  and  a 
different  race. 

Chalmers,  after  describing  how  he  had  joined  with 
the  natives  in  sports  on  shore  and  in  bathing,  declares  : 
"  All  we  want  is  to  lead  the  New  Guinea  children  to  Him 
— by  no  means  to  Anghcize  them,  believing  that  He  will 
receive  them  without  their  adopting  English  customs."  ^ 
And  he  goes  on  to  describe  the  method  they  must  use 
to  do  this  :  cannibaUsm  which  flourished  at  East  Cape 
in  1878,  was  dead  by  1882,  due  to  the  missionaries 
"  learning  the  language,  mixing  freely  with  them,  making 
friends  .  .  .  assisting  them  in  their  trading,  and  in 
every  way  making  them  feel  that  their  good  only  was 
sought."  2  This  attitude  Chalmers  assumed  from  the 
moment  he  arrived  in  the  South  Seas.  The  Earl  of 
Pembroke   and   George   Kingsley  threw  an   interesting 

^  Work  and  Adventure  in  New  Guinea,  p.  243. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  250-252. 


72  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

sidelight  upon  it  when  they  were  received  by  Chalmers 
and  his  wife  at  Rarotonga  in  1873.  "  This  warm-hearted 
sensible  Highland  lady  and  gentleman,"  they  wrote, 
"  are  very  different  people  from  the  typical  missionaries 
of  the  South  Pacific.  ...  By  no  means  believing  that 
they  can  wash  the  brown-a-moor  white  by  a  sudden 
application  of  Calvinistic  whitewash,  they  try  to  make 
him  as  good  a  brown-a-moor  as  they  can,  and  their 
labour  is  certainly  not  in  vain."  ^ 

Chalmers  himself  did  not  attach  very  much  import- 
ance to  religious  observances  as  evidence  of  the  progress 
of  the  native,  or  as  means  towards  that  pr ogress. ^  He 
was  much  more  anxious  that  they  should  come  to  trust 
the  white  man  through  their  experience  of  the  mission- 
aries' devotion,  whose  guidance  was  found  to  lead  to  a 
hitherto  unknown  security  and  prosperity.  Provided 
that  could  be  secured,  he  was  not  one  who  cared  much 
for  the  conventional  results  of  Christianity.  Not,  of 
course,  that  he  neglected  to  preach  the  Gospel,  but 
that  he  refused  to  regard  the  ceremonies  and  customs 
which  have  been  gathered  around  it,  as  most  important 
to  the  salvation  of  savages. 

*  South  Sea  Bubbles,  1873,  pp.  158-197.  There  is  a  vivid  description 
of  an  entertainment  given  in  their  honour  in  which  Chalmers  led  a 
deputation  of  natives  with  gifts,  "  dressed  principally  in  a  white  shirt, 
with  a  native  cloak  of  many  colours,  barefooted,  and  bearing  a  weapon, 
half-paddle."  He  "  frisked  and  bounded  and  .  .  .  gasped  and 
roared,  and  bellowed  like  the  most  Bashantic  of  bulls."  ..."  Is 
it  worse  than  whiskey  and  water,  this  harmless  effervescence  ?  "  the 
writer  asks.  "  All  honour  to  you,  M.  le  Missionaire,  for  your  solid 
good  sense," 

2  E.g.  On  one  of  his  expeditions,  the  native  paddlers  made  Sunday 
an  excuse  for  putting  in  to  land,  Chalmers  would  have  none  of  it. 
Pioneering  in  New  Guinea,  p,  28,  WTien  there  is  a  good  attendance 
at  service,  he  only  exclaims,  "  Alas,  they  are  but  savages  ,  .  .  rejoicing 
in  the  prospect  of  an  unlimited  supply  of  tobacco,  beads,  and  toma- 
hawks,"    Work  and  Adventure  in  New  Guinea,  p.  211. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  73 

Lawes  was  also  quite  definite  upon  this  point.  To 
those  who  demanded  for  them  better  clothes,  and  in- 
struction in  the  common  decencies  of  hfe,  he  replied 
that  those  agencies  were  not  effective,  that  the  savage 
was  averse  to  clothing,  and  that  "  a  savage  in  a  shirt 
is  no  better  than  one  without,"  and  that  "  Christianity 
was  the  true  civilizer."  ^  The  introduction  of  Christi- 
anity, however,  was  "  no  easy  task." 

The  language  difficulty  could  only  be  overcome  by 
speaking  the  "  one  language  which  is  understood  all 
the  world  over  by  every  tribe  of  men  .  .  .  the  language 
of  human  kindness  .  .  .  the  master  key  which  fits  every 
human  lock."  At  first  all  they  could  do  very  often  was 
to  let  the  natives  handle  them,  and  feel  them,  and  to 
give  them  a  little  present,  and  come  away.  Red  beads, 
strips  of  cloth,  and  hoop  iron  thus  became  "  evangelizing 
agents  of  far  greater  power  than  Bibles  and  tracts  in  an 
unknown  tongue."  "  As  soon  as  we  have  gained  their 
confidence  sufficiently  to  be  allowed  to  land  and  live 
amongst  them,  the  Christian  work  begins,  not  by  oral 
teaching,  but  by  that  which  is  more  important — by  our 
life.  We  have  to  give  them  practical  lessons  in  Christian 
Hving.  .  .  .  We  do  not  neglect  teaching  .  .  .  but  it 
is  not  easy  to  awaken  their  interest  or  arouse  their 
attention."  2 

Although  this  educational  policy  of  the  missionaries 

*  One  wonders  whether  Lawes's  view  of  the  importance  of  clothes 
was  modified  by  contact  with  Chalmers,  who  was  opposed  to  the  clothing 
of  natives.  In  his  earlier  notes  Lawes  writes  :  "  The  people  (on  Nine, 
Cook  Islands)  when  we  first  knew  them,  imported  nothing  and  ex- 
ported nothing.  One  native  woman  had  a  cotton  print  dress,  and  a 
very  few  men  had  cotton  waist-cloths.  When  we  left  the  entire  popula- 
tion was  decently  and  in  some  cases  grandly  clothed."  {IV.  G.  Lawes, 
Joseph  King,  1909,  p.  40.)     Unfortunately  tliis  note  is  undated. 

«  Paper  read  to  the  L.M.S.,  May  15,  1879.  {W.  G.  Lams,  J.  King, 
pp.  132-150.) 


74  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

can  no  doubt  be  criticized  in  detail  ^  in  its  broad  results,  it 
was  effective.  The  existence  of  the  blood  feud  was  the 
first  chief  obstacle  to  European  expansion  in  New  Guinea, 
the  sanctity  of  human  life  was  unknown,  and  the  native 
had  no  more  security  for  himself  or  his  relatives  than  the 
white  man  who  visited  him.  No  doubt  an  enterprising 
Government,  backed  at  home  by  a  nation  which  was 
willing  to  pour  out  money  on  its  behalf,  could  have 
conducted  a  successful  war,  and  thus  brought  peace  to 

^  Bevan  made  much  of  the  fact  that  Enghsh  was  not  taught  in  the 
schools.  But  great  difficulty  was  found  at  first  in  teaching  the  natives 
to  read  in  their  own  language  at  Port  Moresby,  and  in  replacing  the 
many  dialects  by  Motu  language.  By  neglecting  to  teach  English 
at  first,  the  missionaries  were  able  to  concentrate  more  upon  impressing 
new  ideas  by  teaching  them  in  a  language  already  understood  by  many 
natives  ;  they  assisted  the  progress  of  friendly  relations  between  tribes 
previously  hostile  to  each  other  by  teaching  the  Gospel  to  those  in- 
dividuals of  them  which  met  at  Port  Moresby,  in  a  single  native  language  ; 
and  they  probably  unwittingly  made  it  almost  imperative  to  Europeans 
who  came  to  New  Guinea  to  do  business  with  the  natives  only  through 
those  who  knew  not  merely  the  language  but  also  their  sensitive  childish 
character,  and  who  were  thus  able  to  watch  effectively  over  critical 
moments,  when  the  two  races  came  in  contact.  Bevan  also  attacked 
the  missionaries  for  not  putting  a  stop  to  senseless  superstitions,  and 
enforcing  "rules  of  sanitary  science."  Romilly  claims  the  opposite  in 
his  book  From  my  Verandah  in  New  Guinea,  1889,  pp.  76,  77  ;  and  in 
his  report  to  the  Special  Commissioner  (PP.  1888,  c.  5249-31),  writing 
that  "  the  tribe  at  Port  Moresby  have  come  so  much  under  the 
influence  of  the  L.M.S.  that  they  are  discarding  to  a  great  extent 
their  superstitions." 

(Bevan,  loc.  cit.,  p.  281.  See  also  a  report  by  Chester  on  the  Enghsh 
classes  in  Port  Moresby  school,  April  1883,  in  PP.  1883,  c.  3691.  Also 
Sir  Peter  Scratchley's  Secretary  on  Lawes's  school,  1885,  in  Australian 
Defences  and  New  Guinea,  loc.  cit.,  p.  359.  For  the  difficulties  found  in 
teaching  see  ChBlmers's  Autobiography,  p.  139,  and  Lawes,  loc.  cit.,  p.  71, 
and  also  p.  121  for  a  description  of  Port  Moresby  as  a  centre  for  barter 
where  "  natives  speaking  eight  different  languages  have  sometimes  been 
at  the  same  time.")  On  the  demand  of  Sir  William  Macgregor  English 
was  eventually  taught  in  all  mission  stations.  But  the  situation  was 
then  very  different.  {R.C.I. ,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  225,  and  Official  Handbook, 
I9I9.) 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  75 

New  Guinea  by  robbing  the  natives  of  their  land  and 
afterwards  exterminating  them,  and  replacing  them 
possibly  by  coolie  labour,  but  short  of  that,  there  was  no 
other  way  of  bringing  civilization  to  the  country  except 
by  very  gradually  raising  the  character  of  the  native, 
and  liberating  him  from  the  tyranny  of  savage  tradition 
through  the  power  of  a  genuine  devotion  to  his  welfare.^ 

In  the  absence  of  lay  pioneers,  who  were  willing  to 
do  this,  the  missionaries  did  so  ;  and  they  did  it  more 
efficiently  than  others  could  have  done,  since  they  were 
always  thinking  not  how  much  they  could  take  from  the 
natives,  but  how  much  they  could  give  to  them.  That 
they  thus  prepared  for  the  development  of  the  territory 
as  a  British  dependency,  was  an  incidental  result  of 
their  poUcy,  and  not  the  aim  of  it. 

Although,  as  Lawes  declared  in  1879,  the  results  of  this 
somewhat  unorthodox  policy  were  largely  intangible, 
and  could  not  be  tabulated  statistically,  and  there  were 
no  baptized  converts,  yet  the  emphasis  laid  upon  prin- 
ciples of  life  rather  than  upon  dogma  and  European 
customs,  was  even  at  that  date  proving  effective,  so  that 
Lawes  could  claim  that  the  principles  of  peace  were 
spreading,  and  that  to  a  great  extent  they  had  "  won 
the  confidence  of  the  people  "  ;  being  known  all  along  the 
coast  as  "  the  men  who  bring  peace."  ^ 

*  The  somewhat  youthful  and  explosive  Be  van  (bom  i860),  who 
claimed  to  be  the  first  to  champion  the  cause  of  the  traders  "  against 
those  who  advocate  keeping  New  Guinea  for  the  New  Guineans  (and  the 
missionaries),"  declared  that  "the  shiftless  aboriginal,"  must  leam  "to 
bend  his  back  to  the  yoke  of  Adam's  curse  or  make  room  for  those  who 
will."     Loc.  cit.,  pp.  273,  276, 

'  J.  King,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  145, 147.  Chalmers  writes  in  1884,  "  We  preach 
the  Gospel  in  many  ways  ;  one  of  our  best  at  present  is  making  peace 
between  tribes."  {Autohiography,  p.  227.)  Sir  W.  Macgregor  reports  in 
1889  that  the  Papuan  was  not  as  yet  "  deeply  impressed  by  the  truths  of 
the  Gospel,"  but  the  labours  of  the  missionaries  "  have  to  such  an  extent 


76  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

This  claim  was  abundantly  justified  at  the  time,  and 
by  events,  and  there  is  nothing  more  striking  in  this 
history  than  the  general  testimony  to  the  influence  of 
the  missionaries  as  peacemakers. 

Goldie  reports  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  in 
1878  that  his  "  safety  lay  simply  in  the  fact  that 
Europeans  had  never  harmed  or  done  anything  wrong 
to  the  coast  tribes,  the  Rev.  Lawes  being  the  only 
European  that  had  ever  visited  even  the  coast  tribes, 
and  his  name  at  present  acting  as  a  password  of 
safety."  1 

Early  in  the  same  year,  there  occurred  the  first  rush 
of  gold-seekers  to  New  Guinea,  causing  some  •  anxiety 
lest  conflict  with  the  natives  should  result.  The 
London  Missionary  Society  brought  the  danger  to  the 
notice  of  the  Colonial  Office,  which  arranged  for  the 
despatch  of  a  man-of-war  to  Port  Moresby  (July  6,  '78), 
and  Chester's  powers  as  Pohce  Magistrate  at  Thursday 
Island  were  temporarily  extended  by  his  appointment 
as  a  Deputy-Commissioner.  2  But  all  went  well. 
Kindness  and  help  by  the  one,  and  steadiness  and 
gratitude  by  the  others,  enabled  the  missionaries  and 
the  diggers  to  be  the  best  of  friends.  This  was  enough 
to  obtain  for  the  diggers  the  confidence  and  help 
of  the  natives.  A  report  from  H.M.S.  Sappho  forwarded 
a  statement  by  a  leader  of  the  expedition  telling  of  the 
good  reception  they  received  from  the  natives  and  of  the 
influence  Chalmers  had  upon  the  diggers.  A  service 
was  held  at  Port  Moresby,  attended  by  them  all  without 
distinction   of  creed,  at  which  Chalmers  advised  them 

modified  the  ways  of  thinking  and  the  social  relations  of  the  natives 
that  the  good  they  have  done  is  incalculably  great."     PP.  1890, «;.  5897- 

33,  p.  38- 

1  R.G.S.,  1878,  vol.  xxii.  p.  220. 

2  PP.  1883,  c  3617 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  77 

both  to  have  no  religious  discussion,  as  being  likely  to 
create  division  amongst  them,  and  also  to  keep  on  good 
terms  with  the  natives.  He  also  visited  the  mining 
camp  with  Chester  where  he  again  impressed  this  upon 
them.i  This  advice  and  the  fact  that  the  diggers  "  were 
to  a  great  extent  dependent  on  the  good  offices  of  the 
natives  for  the  means  of  subsistence  when  exploring 
for  gold,"  resulted  in  their  relations  with  the  natives 
being  "  quite  friendly."  ^  Chalmers  received  a  testi- 
monial in  gratitude  from  the  diggers,  who  wrote : 
"  You  have  in  our  intercourse  with  the  natives  aided 
us  to  establish  a  friendly  footing."  In  July  of  the 
same  year,  the  L.M.S.  was  asked  by  the  miners  and 
others,  resident  in  Port  Moresby,  to  send  back  to  them 
Lawes  (who  was  at  that  time  in  England)  because  of 
his  influence  with  the  natives.^ 

The  same  year  Chester  went  with  Chalmers  on  an 
expedition  from  South  Cape  to  Milne  Bay  through  a 
population  of  cannibals  quite  safely ;  which,  Chester 
declares,  was  only  made  possible  by  the  assistance  of 
Chalmers  and  "  the  confidence  with  which  he  had  in- 
spired the  natives."  * 

It  made  no  difference  to  the  determination  of  the 

1  pp.  1 883,  c.  361 7,  p.  62 ,     Corroborated  by  Chalmers's  A  utobiography, 

p.  134- 

*  The  only  serious  incidents  apparently  were  a  case  of  rape  of  a  native 
woman  at  Port  Moresby,  and  a  disturbance  caused  by  the  theatrical 
manner  in  which  the  confidential  agent  of  the  Queensland  Government 
dealt  with  what  the  Acting-High  Commissioner  called  "  trifling  acts  of 
theft,"  by  violence  and  a  "  parade  of  force."  This  the  Commissioner 
much  regretted,  especially  as  the  agent  himself  reported  that  the 
expedition  felt  a  "  perfect  sense  of  security  from  harm  as  regards  the 
natives."     (PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  pp.  89,  54.) 

'  Quoted  by  Lawes  in  a  demand  for  annexation  and  forwarded  to  CO. 
by  Sir  A.  Gordon,  January  31,  1879.     (PP.  1883,  c.  3617.) 

*  Report,  August  30,  1878.     (PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  p.  84.) 


78  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

missionaries  to  act  as  peacemakers,  when  the  hands  of 
the  home  government  were  forced  and  a  protectorate 
was  established.  Although  they  laid  themselves  open 
to  the  bitter  attacks  of  those  who  wished  to  exploit  the 
country  and  its  inhabitants  immediately,  without  any 
thought  of  duty  to  the  native  race,  or  of  the  permanent 
prosperity  of  the  dependency,  the  missionaries  con- 
tinued to  act  as  a  moderating  and  curbing  influence 
upon  the  savage  passions  of  the  natives,  and  upon  the 
rashly  adventurous  spirit  of  some  white  men,  and  upon 
the  greed  of  others.^  To  the  representatives  of  the  British 
and  Queensland  Governments  they  acted  as  wise  coun- 
sellors, loyal  interpreters,  and  staunch  friends. 

A  short  telegram  from  Commodore  Erskine  to  the 
Admiralty,  November  26,  1884,  reporting  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  Protectorate  was  not  so  short  that  tribute 
could  not  be  paid  to  the  missionaries.  "  November  9, 
The  Protectorate  has  been  proclaimed,"  it  reads,  "  (by) 
H.M.S.  Nelson,  British  flag  hoisted  at  nine  places.  .  .  . 
Received  everywhere  with  satisfaction.  The  confidence 
(of)  the  natives  is  wonderful.  Success  is  due  (to)  in- 
fluence (and)  assistance  (of)  missionaries."  2 

Another  telegram  dated  January  19,  1885,  reporting 
the  extension  of  the  Protectorate,  reads,  "  Bridge  reports 
Chalmers  rendered  excellent  service." 

But  so  impressed  was  the  Commodore  by  the  help 

^  In  a  cutting  from  the  Brisbane  Courier  enclosed  to  Lord  Derby 
by  the  Administrator  of  Queensland,  Sir  A.  H.  Palmer,  October  24, 
1883,  there  is  a  vivid  picture  of  Chalmers  "  the  tyrant  missionary," 
as  his  enemies  called  him,  "  who  will  not  be  kept  back  "  from  asserting 
native  rights  when  other  missionaries  were  timid  of  stepping  beyond  their 
work.  (PP.  1884,  c.  3863.)  Chalmers  himself  wrote  in  September  1883 
that  no  amount  of  abuse  would  turn  him  from  opposing  those  who 
were  trying  to  exploit  the  country  selfishly,  and  gloried  in  being  called 
"  the  tyrant  missionary."     Autobiography,  pp.  240-242. 

»  PP.  1885,  c.  4273. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  79 

thus  rendered  to  his  command  that  in  his  written  report 
he  dealt  at  some  length  with  it.  He  declared  that  his 
programme  was  only  made  possible  by  the  "  invaluable 
assistance  of  Chalmers  and  Lawes,  and  that  the  wonder- 
ful confidence  shown  by  the  natives  must  be  entirely 
attributed  to  their  influence." 

"  From  the  moment  of  my  arrival,"  he  continued, 
"  these  gentlemen  have  placed  their  invaluable  services 
entirely  at  my  disposal ;  they  have  been  ready  night 
and  day  to  assist  me  in  every  possible  way  ...  in 
translating  and  explaining  the  terms  of  the  proclamations 
and  addresses  .  .  .  and  in  collecting  the  numerous 
chiefs,  who  but  for  them  would  never  have  come  near 
the  ship.  These  gentlemen  .  .  .  have  by  their  firm, 
but  conciliatory  and  upright  dealing  estabUshed  such 
a  hold  over  the  natives  as  many  a  crowned  head  would 
be  proud  to  possess.  I  have  been  lost  in  admiration 
at  their  influence.  During  our  cruise  it  has  happened 
that  a  boat  has  been  sent  in  the  middle  of  the  night 
to  bring  off  a  chief  ;  when  it  is  imagined  what  it  is  to 
suddenly  surprise  and  wake  up  the  inhabitants  of  a 
native  village,  and  for  the  chief  to  comply  without 
demur  to  a  request  to  go  off  immediately  to  a  huge  man- 
of-war,  it  will  be  understood  what  a  magic  effect  is 
produced  by  a  few  words  spoken  by  '  Tamate  *  (Chalmers) 
or  *  Missi  Lawes  '  (Lawes)."  ^ 

The  Reports  of  the  Governors  of  British  New  Guinea  ^ 

^  Enclosure  in  Adniiralty  to  CO.,  December  1884.  (PP.  1885,  c.  4273, 
p.  123.)  This  is  corroborated  by  a  correspondent  of  the  Sydney 
Morning  Herald,  who  was  present  at  the  declaration  of  the  Protectorate 
and  "wished  to  see  Chalmers  amongst  the  natives  and  judge  of  his  in- 
fluence for  himself.  He  owns  to  being  astonished  at  Chalmers's  power. 
New  Guinea,  C.  Lyne,  1885,  p.  68. 

■  Sir  Peter  Scratchley,  Special  Commissioner,  August  22 — December 
2,  1885  (appointed  October  1884).  H.  H.  Romilly,  Deputy-Commis- 
sioner, December  2,  1885 — February  26,  1886.     Hon.    John  Douglas, 


8o  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

are  unanimous  in  their  testimony  to  the  peace-making 
influence  of  the  missionaries. 

"  Peace  is  one  great  result  of  the  missionary  teaching/' 
writes  Sir  Peter  Scratchley's  secretary,  who  recognizes  the 
value  of  Chalmers's  work  and  influence  amongst  the  coast 
tribes,  who  had  been  perpetually  at  war  before  his  arrival.^ 

Dr  Doyle  Glanville,  who  was  on  Sir  Peter's  staff  in 
'85,  also  bore  witness  to  this. 

"  Was  it  not  Tamate,"  he  declared,  "  who  turned  their 
(the  natives)  quarrels  into  peace  ?  Had  not  Tamate 
been  known,  when  two  opposing  tribes  were  approaching, 
to  go  and  take  the  two  hostile  chiefs  like  two  turbulent 
children  and  insist  upon  their  being  friends  and  not 
fighting  ?  "  "  Had  it  not  been  for  that  gentleman,"  he 
continued,  "  whatever  work  had  been  accomplished  on 
the  expedition  could  never  have  been  done  without  his 
valuable  help.  His  profound  knowledge  of  the  native 
character,  his  wide  experience  and  his  great  tact  placed 
us  on  a  footing  with  the  natives  that  otherwise  would 
have  been  impossible."  He  taught  the  Commission 
how  to  understand  the  natives  and  the  natives  how  to 
understand  the  motives  of  the  visitors.  ..."  Wherever 
the  power  of  the  missionaries  is  felt,  there  law,  order, 
and  peace  are  established."  A  mission  village,  even  if 
presided  over  by  a  native  teacher,  was  always  safe  for 
life  and  property.  "  Like  a  system  of  moral  police,  the 
missionaries  establish  a  subtle,  but  very  strong  restrain- 
ing influence  that  checks  certain  unprincipled  persons 
and  encourages  honest  traders  and  adventurers."  2 

Special  Commissioner,  February  27,  1886 — September  3,  1888.  Sir 
William  Macgregor,  Administrator  of  British  New  Guinea,  September  4, 
1888 — March  13,  1895  ;  Lieut-Governor,  March  13,  1895 — September  10, 
1898.  ^  Scratchley's  Autobiography,  loc.  cit.,  p.  360. 

2  This  very  warm  praise  loses  part  of  its  value  from  the  fact  that 
Chalmers  was  present  at  tliis  meeting  and  Glan\dlle  rose  after  a  very 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  8i 

Thus  in  1887  Scratchley  was  able  to  claim  that  "  under 
present  conditions  a  single  white  man  unarmed  can  go 
fifty  miles  into  the  interior  from  any  point  between  Port 
Moresby  and  Hula  in  perfect  safety.  Much  of  this  is 
due  to  the  native  teachers."  ^ 

Deputy-Commissioner  Romilly  in  1885,  when  returning 
native  labourers  to  their  homes,  felt  the  difficulty  of  his 
task  increased  by  the  absence  of  Chalmers,  who  was  away 
exploring.  So  impressed  was  he  by  Chalmers's  person- 
ahty  and  work  that  he  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  the 
safety  of  many  white  visitors  was  due  to  the  influence 
and  assistance  of  the  missionaries  and  that  the  success 
of  future  Government  measures  would  be  largely  due 
to  Chalmers,  Lawes,  and  Macfarlane.^ 

The  reports  of  the  Hon.  J.  Douglas  corroborate  this. 
In  that  for  1887  it  is  noted  that  the  natives  of  Manu- 
Manu  "  are  now  perfectly  peaceable."  ^  In  that  for 
1888  it  is  claimed  that  there  had  been  no  instance  of 
outrage  of  white  on  native  or  vice  versa,  and  that  there 
had  been  no  period  during  the  last  ten  years  when  these 
relations  had  been  on  "  a  more  friendly  or  satisfactory 
footing."  * 

And   finally   there   is    the    evidence   of    Sir   William 

eloquent  speech  by  him  ;    but  even  so  with  every  allowance  for  the 
influence  of  the  moment,  it  remains  a  striking  tribute.     R.C.I. ,  vol. 
xviii.,  1886-1887,  pp.  107-111.     Scratchley,  loc.  cii.,  p.  290. 
1  Scratchley,  loc.  cit.,  p.  291. 

•  Letters,  ed.  S.  H.  Romilly,  1893,  p.  228.  The  Western  Pacific  and 
New  Guinea,  1886,  p.  242. 

'  PP.  1888,  c.  5249-31,  pp.  5,  7.  It  is  only  fair  to  note  that  the 
Government  officials  as  well  as  the  missionaries  were  peacemakers. 
G.  Hunter  is  reported  as  having  founded  a  Government  station  between 
Rigo  and  Kappa,  and  as  having  ' '  exercised  a  considerable  controlling 
influence  over  these  tribes.  It  is  quite  certain  that  there  are  now  much 
fewer  acts  of  violence  than  there  used  to  be." 

*  PP.  1889,  c.  5620-3,  p.  3. 

F 


82  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

Macgregor,  who  reports  in  1889  that  there  had  been 
*'  very  considerable  progress  by  the  L.M.S.  in  softening 
the  manners  "  of  the  tribes  in  the  Maiva  and  Kevori 
districts,  although  this  "  had  not  yet  reached  such  a 
stage  as  to  put  a  stop  to  the  long-continued  feud  of  the 
two  septs."  1  The  resident  magistrate  of  the  Central 
Division  points  out  in  the  same  report  that  native  policy 
reflected  the  consideration  shown  to  the  natives  in 
better  relations  between  tribes  and  in  a  more  friendly 
attitude  to  foreigners.  The  Saroa  and  Rigo  people  now 
fearlessly  went  to  villages  on  the  Kemp  Welch  River  ; 
Kapake  people  went  to  Aroma  and  Aroma  people 
went  to  Port  Moresby — visits  mostly  for  the  purpose  of 
trading,  a  new  and  encouraging  feature  in  native  policy. 
He  adds  that  "  no  foreigners  have  been  molested  in  this 
district  during  the  last  year,"  and  that  explorers  were 
treated  everywhere  with  kindness  and  attention. ^ 

Thus  there  is  no  lack  of  evidence  to  support  the  view 
of  missionary  policy  taken  by  Sir  William  Macgregor 
when  he  declared  that  "  its  influence  has  sometimes 
prevented  inter-tribal  war  and  has  reduced  the  frequency 
of  murder,  and  in  all  cases  tends  to  make  the  work  of 
the  magistrate  lighter.  Peace  is  easier  to  estabHsh,  and 
when  established,  is  easier  to  maintain  in  a  mission 
district  than  elsewhere."  ^ 

To  recapitulate,  the  first  and  most  important  service 
that  the  missionaries  rendered  to  the  cause  of  British 
expansion  in  Papua  was  that  of  peacemaking. 

After  acting  unconsciously,  even  one  might  say,  un- 

1  pp.  1 890-1 891,  c.  6269-5,  pp-  25,  54- 

2  Ibid.,  p.  53.  Famine  in  the  Rigo  district  was  met  by  food  being 
given  in  return  for  work,  and  in  the  case  of  the  infirm,  free.  Lawes 
raised  a  fund  for  relief  around  Port  Moresby. 

*  Paper  read  before  R.G.S.,  February  25,  1895,  reprinted  in  British 
New  Guinea,  Country  and  People,  1897,  p.  92. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  83 

willingly,^  as  a  stimulus  to  expansion,  their  function 
changed.  Once  the  check  of  a  traditional  fear  had  been 
removed,  enterprising  lay  pioneers  were  certain  to  follow 
each  other  in  a  constantly  increasing  stream,  which  the 
missionaries  would  be  powerless  to  stop.  But  in  the 
absence  of  a  government  of  any  sort,  theirs  was  the  only 
moderating  influence,  the  only  external  force  which  could 
direct  the  stream  into  peaceful  channels. 

Their  will  and  their  function  therefore  now  became 
harmonized.  Increasingly  rapid  immigration  threatened 
to  produce  a  crisis  which  would  make  difficult  the 
gradual  adjustment  of  New  Guinea  affairs  by  the 
missionaries.  They  therefore  felt  it  their  duty  to  check 
rather  than  stimulate  the  tide  of  adventurers. 

Although  Bevan  writes  with  the  exaggeration  of  a 
partisan,  yet  he  was  inaccurate  in  degree  and  not  in  fact 
when  he  represented  the  missionaries  as  being  hostile  to 
the  immigration  of  settlers  and  traders. ^    It  was  fortu- 

^  The  missionaries  hoped  to  interest  their  countrymen  in  the  land 
as  fit  for  missionary  stations,  not  as  suitable  for  squatters  ;  and  in 
its  population  as  heathen  awaiting  conversion,  not  as  labourers  without 
work.  But  their  political  significance  in  this  case  does  not  depend 
upon  their  motive. 

*  Occasional  letters  by  missionaries  upon  the  evil  of  the  climate 
probably  discouraged  some.  Macfarlane,  in  a  letter  published  in  the 
Times,  October  6,  1875,  emphasized  the  danger  to  emigrants  of 
fever,  and  Lawes  wrote  in  the  Australian  Medical  Gazette,  May 
1887,  "  that  New  Guinea  was  entirely  unfitted  to  be  the  home  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  "  for  that  reason.  Although  A.  Musgrave,  in  the  Report 
for  1888  (PP.  c.  5620-3),  gave  figures  to  disprove  this,  and  Sir  W. 
Macgregor,  in  the  Official  Handbook  of  the  dependency,  1892,  wrote  that, 
"  by  reasonable  care  and  by  taking  appropriate  remedies  whenever 
fever  threatened,  the  danger  from  it  to  a  person  actively  employed 
and  otherwise  healthy  is  not  at  all  great  "  ;  yet  at  a  meeting  of  the 
R.C.I. ,  April  II,  1893,  opinions  of  competent  authorities  were  divided, 
and  as  late  as  1907,  the  Handbook  (page  9)  declares  that  "  a  very 
great  misconception  appears  to  exist  as  to  the  unhealthiness  of  the 
climate  for  Europeans."     That  the  missionaries  had  some  good  ground 


84  BRITISH  NEW  fxUINEA 

nate  for  British  New  Guinea  that  they  were,  since  peace 
was  the  more  easily  kept  between  a  small  number  of  white 
men  and  the  natives,  and  under  missionary  influence  the 
problem  of  the  adjustment  of  the  interests  of  the  civilized 
and  the  savage  race  was  solved  gradually  and  peacefully, 
to  the  common  good  of  both  races,  so  that  the  foundations 
of  the  future  prosperity  of  the  dependency  could  be 
founded  upon  mutual  confidence  between  the  races,  as 
far  as  such  was  obtainable,  and  not  upon  the  bitterness 
resulting  from  a  racial  war. 

Their  value  did  not  diminish  when  the  country  came 
under  the  control  of  administrators.  By  force  of  per- 
sonality they  were  able  to  impress  upon  these  the  im- 
portance of  not  alienating  the  sympathy  and  respect  of 
the  natives,  and  their  knowledge  of  native  customs  and 
of  the  native  character  enabled  them  to  render  invaluable 
assistance  to  the  administration  in  putting  this  principle 
into  practice.  Perhaps  they  best  protected  the  native 
from  the  ambition  and  the  ignorance  of  the  white  man 
by  explaining  him  to  the  latter.  They  protected  the 
native  to  some  extent  from  his  own  savagery  by  ex- 
plaining to  him  the  white  man's  intentions  and  deeds. 
Their  genuine  disinterestedness  enabled  them  to  retain 
the  confidence  of  both  races,  so  that  they  were  enabled 
gradually  to  forge  a  link  to  join  the  two  together  in  work 
for  the  dependency.  Sometimes  they  may  have  acted  with 
a  prejudice  for  native  interests,  but  if  so,  it  was  a  good 
fault,  for  the  native  had  no  other  champions,  and  might 
have  been  led  to  rely  upon  himself  with  the  disastrous 
result  of  another  native  war.  At  least  they  never  showed 
themselves  so  prejudiced  that  they  forfeited  the  respect 

for  their  fears  is  of  interest  but  not  of  great  importance.  That  their 
fears  may  have  assisted  to  check  a  rush  of  settlers,  however,  was  of 
very  fortunate  importance  lor  the  future  of  the  dependency. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  85 

of  the  best  white  men.  Although  they  were  often 
violently  attacked  by  those  who  had  no  interest  beyond 
plunder,  they  and  their  successors  have  retained  not 
merely  the  respect  but  the  admiration  of  succeeding 
administrators. 

This  is  not  surprising,  for  it  was  due  to  the  missionaries 
that  the  Administration  possessed,  as  the  native  back- 
ground for  policy,  respect  and  not  hostility,  and  gratitude 
instead  of  bitterness. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    LABOUR    TRAFFIC 

The  determination  of  the  missionaries  to  assert  the  rights 
of  the  natives  against  any  white  men  desiring  to  exploit 
them,  and  to  oppose  the  action  of  any  individual  or  group 
which  might  react  unfavourably  upon  friendly  relations 
between  the  two  races,  is  evident  in  the  attitude  adopted 
by  them  towards  the  labour  traffic. 

In  the  opinion  of  all  those  who  were  unprejudiced  by 
self-interest,  this  traffic  was  a  great  obstacle  to  peace. 
Commodore  Erskine  indeed,  in  forwarding  the  appeal  of 
the  chiefs  for  its  cessation,  described  it  in  1884  ^-s  "  the 
only  obstacle  in  the  way  of  friendly  relations  "  as  the 
natives  had  shown  an  implicit  confidence  in  the  pro- 
tecting arm  of  Great  Britain. 

New  Guinea  suffered  less  than  some  islands,  partly 
because  its  coasts  were  not  surveyed  until  after  the 
Pacific  Islanders  Protection  Act  of  1872  had  enabled  the 
Government  to  exercise  some  control  over  the  traffickers, 
partly  because  the  island  was  believed  to  contain  a  more 
than  usually  savage  race  of  cannibals  ;  and  when,  thanks 
to  the  missionaries,  it  became  less  dangerous  to  visit  it,  in 
another  sense  it  became  risky  to  do  so  owing  to  the 
alertness  of  Chalmers  and  Lawes  to  any  invasion  of  the 
terms  of  the  Act,  and  owing  to  their  influence  with  high 
officials. 

Yet  New  Guinea  by  no  means  escaped  scot-free.  Even 
Be  van,  who  rarely  appears  as  witness  for  the  native 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  87 

against  the  white  man,  inveighs  against  the  traffic,  and 
admits  that  the  narratives  of  "escapees  "  must  have  in- 
flamed the  natives  against  "  their  white  seducers, 
oppressors,  and  aggressors,"  and  quotes  Captain  Fryer  as 
declaring  that  the  suspicion  aroused  by  labour  vessels 
had  made  native  labour  unprocurable  for  beche-de-mer 
trade,  and  that  the  latter  had  been  almost  crushed, 
adding  that  the  labour  traffic  would  cost  "  dozens  of 
heads."  ^  After  the  testimony  of  such  a  white  partisan, 
it  seems  hardly  necessary  to  refer  for  corroboration  to 
official  reports,  such  as  that  of  Romilly  for  1887,  who 
attributed  the  change  for  the  worse  in  the  demeanour  of 
the  savages  in  the  South-East  Islands  and  Milne  Bay 
during  the  previous  six  years  to  the  work  of  the 
kidnappers.  2 

The  missionaries  played  an  important  part  in  opposing 
the  traffic.  Not  content  with  acting  as  a  curb  upon  the 
activities  of  the  slave-traders  by  the  simple  fact  of  their 
presence  in  a  locality,^  and  with  occasionally  rendering 
assistance  to  "  escapees,"  *  they  put  pressure  upon   the 

^  Bevan,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  86,  105. 

•  PP.  1888,  c.  5249-31. 

'  The  following  question  and  answer  are  contained  in  the  report 
of  the  inquiry  conducted  by  Commodore  Erskine  into  the  Hopeful 
case, 

Q.  17.  "  How  did  the  white  men  treat  the  natives  of  the  places 
they  called  at  while  you  were  on  board  ?  " 

A.  "  As  long  as  in  reach  of  missionary  they  were  not  cruel,  when 
away  from  reach  of  missionary  they  got  guns  and  burnt  villages,  and 
got  men  by  force."     PP.  1885,  c.  4273,  p.  106. 

*  E.  F.  Hely,  a  Government  agent,  declared  during  the  same  inquiry 
that  through  the  influence  of  the  Reverend  S.  Macfarlane  (on  Murray 
Island)  he  consented  to  take  back  some  runaways  to  their  home  instead 
of  to  the  plantation.  See  also  The  Times,  December  5,  1884,  for 
a  letter  of  Lawes,  describing  the  arrival  of  an  ''escapee  "  at  Port  Moresby, 
as  a  stowaway  upon  the  Ellengowan,  after  being  received  kindly  at 
Murray  Island. 


88  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

Government,  informed  public  opinion  of  the  facts,  and 
used  their  personal  influence  with  the  local  administrators. 

The  menace  of  the  labour  traders  did  not  overshadow 
New  Guinea  until  Queensland  sent  Chester  to  take 
possession  on  April  4,  1883  ;  for  the  risks  and  difficulties 
were  less  at  the  smaller  islands.  But  the  supply  was 
running  out  there,  some  islands,  indeed,  having  become 
entirely  depopulated ;  and  rumours,  exaggerated,  no 
doubt,  but  partly  true,  reached  the  missionaries  that 
Queensland  desired  possession  in  order  that  her  labour 
ships  might  visit  the  coasts  to  secure  cheap  labour  under 
the  protection  of  the  High  Commissioner  for  the  Western 
Pacific.^ 

Chalmers,  whose  views  upon  the  traffic  are  on  record 
in  a  vigorous  letter  to  a  friend,^  took  immediate  steps  to 
lay  the  case  of  the  natives  before  the  Government  of 
Queensland  and  the  Government  at  home.  In  May  he 
left  for  Queensland  with  Baron  Maclay,  and  on  his  way 
thither  with  the  latter,  wrote  a  joint  letter  to  Lord  Derby, 
asking  that  not  only  might  native  rights  in  land  be 
respected,  but  that  both  the  liquor  and  the  labour  trade 
might  be  prohibited.^ 

He  received  a  curt  reply,  dated  September  3,  1883, 
that  "  H.M.  Government  are  not  prepared  to  enter  upon 
considerations  of  questions  relating  to  the  land  and 
natives  of  New  Guinea  at  the  present  time." 

For,  in  fact,  the  Government  had  only  just  begun  to 

1  Chalmers's  Autobiography,  pp.  222,  237, 

'  We  have  had  the  man-stealers  at  the  East  End,  but  I  hope  their 
day  is  ending.  They  abuse  me  villainously,  for  which  I  am  glad.  One 
paper  says  that  I  teach  the  natives  that  white  men  are  cannibals.  I 
could  truthfully  teach  them  that  they  are  fiends  incarnate,  I  shall 
keep  at  it  with  home  and  the  colonies  until  the  horrible  traffic  is 
stopped.     [Autobiography,  p.  228.) 

3  PP.  1884,  c.  3863 ;  also  Autobiography,  p.  240. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  8g 

move  in  the  direction  of  establishing  a  protectorate.  In 
the  debate  in  the  Lords  on  July  2nd,  the  fear  of  annexation 
and  the  regulation  of  the  labour  traffic,  on  which  opinion 
as  to  abuses  was  divided,  were  the  chief  notes  of  the 
debate.  Lord  Derby  was  characteristically  cautious,  and 
declined  to  favour  an  annexation  policy.^ 

On  August  21,  in  the  Commons,  Mr  Gorst  noted  the 
failure  of  the  Pacific  Islanders  Protection  Act  of  1875, 
and  asked  what  was  the  Government's  policy  in  the  face 
of  the  "  frightful  crimes  "  committed  by  both  whites  and 
natives  ?  Hon.  Evelyn  Ashley,  who  replied,  emphasized 
Lord  Derby's  despatch  to  the  Governor  of  Queensland, 
by  suggesting  that  a  protectorate  might  gradually  be 
established  by  increased  naval  activity  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood.    A  committee  was  about  to  report. ^ 

Chalmers's  letter,  therefore,  which  asked  the  Govern- 
ment to  consider  the  manner  in  which  the  Protectorate 
should  be  governed,  arrived  when  Lord  Derby  had  not 
yet  made  up  his  mind  whether  a  protectorate  should  be 
estabUshed,^  and  probably  received  Httle  notice.  But  for 
all  that,  historically  it  marks  the  start  of  an  active 
campaign  by  the  missionaries  against  any  increase  of  the 
labour  traffic  in  New  Guinea,  and  in  favour  of  its  total 
aboUtion,  a  struggle  in  which  they  were  eventually 
victors. 

On  arrival  in  Queensland  Chalmers  tried  to  convert 

1  Hansard,  1883,  v.  281,  c.  3. 

*  Ibid.,  1883,  V.  283,  c.  1549. 

'  PP.  1883,  c.  3691,  Lord  Derby  was  opposed  to  annexation,  but 
would  consider  the  question  of  a  protectorate  if  Queensland  would 
provide  "  a  reasonable  annual  sum"  (dated  July  11,  1883). 

On  July  21  Lord  Derby  received  a  joint  letter  from  the  Agents- 
General  of  the  Australian  colonies  advocating  annexation  not  only 
on  strategic  grounds,  but  because  "  the  state  of  things  in  the  Western 
Pacific  has  at  last  become  intolerable."    PP.  1883,  c.  3814. 


90  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

both  the  Government  and  public  opinion  to  his  view.  He 
writes  in  his  journal  that  he  had  a  long  interview  with 
the  Premier,  "  a  stubborn,  good,  honest  Scotchman," 
extracting  a  promise  from  him  that  if  coolies  could  be 
obtained  the  traffic  would  be  stopped.  He  also  inter- 
viewed the  Leader  of  the  Opposition,  "  editors  of  leading 
newspapers,  and  many  other  men  of  more  or  less  in- 
fluence," and  he  "  addressed  two  large  meetings  at  one 
of  which  the  editor  of  a  leading  newspaper  took  the 
chair."  ^ 

In  November  the  Protectorate  was  proclaimed ;  and 
the  task  of  the  missionaries  became  easier,  since  their 
efforts  could  now  be  concentrated  upon  the  British 
Government,  which  was  now  responsible,  upon  its 
servants,  the  officials  of  the  Protectorate,  and  upon 
British  public  opinion. 

Evidence  of  their  new  opportunity  of  influencing  policy 
is  contained  in  the  very  first  telegram  of  Commodore 
Erskine,  reporting  the  proclamation  of  the  Protectorate. 
"  The  chiefs  pray  Her  Majesty  (to)  cause  natives  that 
have  been  taken  (to)  Queensland  (to)  return  home,"  he 
wrote,  and  then  concluded  with  the  tribute  to  the 
missionaries  already  quoted. ^  Bearing  in  mind  the 
astonishing  impression  that  Chalmers  and  Lawes  made 
upon  the  Commodore,  it  is  not  unfair  to  deduce  that  this 
reference  to  the  labour  traffic  was  inserted  in  the  telegram 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  missionaries,  who  were  the  only 
interpreters  available,  and  who  would  have  been  likely  to 
have  seized  such  an  opportunity  of  pressing  upon  the 
home  Government  their  point,  that  the  labour  traffic  was 
the  chief  menace  to  the  peace  of  the  new  Protectorate. 

The  following  month  a  letter  from  Lawes  appeared  in 

^  Autobiography,  p.  240. 
'  Loc.  cit.,  see  ante,  p.  79. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  91 

The  Times.  It  was  dated  September  15,  1884,  but 
between  its  despatch  and  its  publication  on  December  5, 
the  situation,  as  we  have  seen,  had  changed  favourably 
for  the  missionary  poUcy.  The  British  Government  could 
no  longer  silence  criticism,  or  ignore  petitions,  by  declaring 
that  it  was  "  not  prepared  to  enter  upon  consideration  of 
questions  relating  to  the  land  and  natives  of  New  Guinea," 
since  it  had  been  forced  to  assume  responsibility  for  a 
large  part  of  the  island.  In  addition,  the  report  of  one 
of  its  officers  had  declared  very  vigorously  that  the  support 
of  the  missionaries  had  been  indispensable  to  him.  His 
phrase  that  "  they  had  established  such  a  hold  over  the 
natives  as  many  a  crowned  head  would  be  proud  to 
possess,"  1  must  have  recalled  unpleasant  memories  of  the 
missionary  kingdom  of  Tahiti,  and  must  have  made  the 
Government  more  ready  to  keep  the  New  Guinea  mis- 
sionaries quiet  by  listening  to  their  complaints,  and  by 
encouraging  them  to  think  that  the  independence  of  a 
missionary  kingdom  was  unnecessary  for  the  protection 
of  the  natives.  In  this  letter  Lawes  gave  instances  of 
some  recent  abuses  in  the  traffic,  and  concluded  thus  : 

"  If  the  confidence  of  the  people  at  the  east  end  of  New 
Guinea  is  not  restored  by  the  speedy  return  of  their  sons, 
husbands,  and  brothers,  compUcations  will  ensue,  and 
reprisals  on  innocent  white  men  will  take  place.  The 
British  Government,  whatever  form  it  may  take  in  New 
Guinea,  will  be  discredited,  and  looked  on  with  suspicion 
by  those  who  believe  they  have  been  deceived,  and  their 
homes  desolated,  by  the  white  man. 

"  All  these  alleged  misdeeds  have  taken  place  at  the 
extreme  eastern  end  of  New  Guinea,  but  the  report  of 
them,  with  many  additions,  will  travel  all  along  the 
coast." 

1  pp.  1885,  c.  4273,  No.  134. 


92  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

Lord  Derby  acted  with  surprising  promptness,  and 
forwarded  a  copy  of  the  letter  to  the  Governor  of 
Queensland  for  the  latter  to  take  action  upon  it.  Some 
recruiting  agents  were  subsequently  apprehended  and 
sentenced  to  death  and  penal  servitude,  for  "  murder  in 
kidnapping "  and  for  kidnapping.^  The  commission 
which  was  appointed  to  make  enquiries  into  the  allegations 
of  Lawes,  recommended  that  all  natives  improperly 
recruited  should  be  returned  to  their  homes  at  public 
expense  ;  and  405  were  accordingly  returned  on  June  13, 
1885,2  a  number,  Lawes  wrote,  "  only  58  short  of  the 
whole  number  affected."  ^ 

But  the  most  important  achievement  of  the  mis- 
sionaries existed  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Proclamation 
of  the  Protectorate.  In  actual  phrasing  the  address  to 
the  natives  differed  slightly  at  the  various  places  where 
it  was  dehvered,  but  in  every  case  this  promise  was 
made  to  the  natives  on  behalf  of  the  White  Queen  :  "  No 
one  will  be  allowed  to  take  you  against  your  wishes  from 
your  homes."  ^ 

This  was  the  very  definite  interpretation  placed  upon 
the  written  proclamation  ^  by  the  missionary  interpreters 
with  the  sanction,  and  on  behalf  of  the  officer  proclaiming 
the  Protectorate,  and  it  proved  eventually  to  be  the  death 
sentence  passed  upon  the  labour  traffic  in  New  Guinea  ; 

1  pp.  1885,  4273,  Nos.  63,  67. 

2  pp.  1885,  c.  4584,  Nos.  93,  125. 

3  The  Times,  September  23,  1885. 

*  Quoted  from  the  address  to  the  chiefs  at  Toulon  Island,  November 
14,  1884.     (PP.  1885,  c.  4273.) 

5  The  preamble  read  :  "  Whereas  it  has  become  essential  for  the 
protection  of  the  Uves  and  properties  of  the  native  inhabitants  of 
New  Guinea  .  .  .  that  a  British  Protectorate  should  be  estabUshed 
over  a  certain  portion  of  such  country  and  islands.  .  .  ."  {Handbook 
of  the  Territory  of  Papua,  compiled  by  the  Hon.  Staniforth  Smith, 
3rd  Ed.,  1912,  p.  loi.) 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  93 

for  the  proclamation  was  ever  afterwards  quoted  by  the 
missionaries,  and  by  those  who  took  a  similar  view  of 
policy,  as  a  solemn  pledge  which  the  Government  could 
not  repudiate  without  dishonour,  and  which  it  was 
eventually  forced  to  confirm  by  legislative  enactment. 

Four  years  only  were  to  pass  before  the  British  Govern- 
ment asserted  its  sovereignty  over  the  Protectorate,  but 
it  was  a  long  enough  period  to  give  proof  beyond  question 
that  only  the  powers  of  complete  sovereignty  w^ere  suffi- 
cient to  fulfil  the  promise  given  in  1884. 

The  Protectorate  failed  for  the  same  reason  that  the 
High  Commission  for  the  Western  Pacific  failed — because 
of  its  limited  jurisdiction.  Romilly,  whose  report  of 
1887  that  kidnapping  was  having  an  evil  effect  on  the 
natives,  has  already  been  quoted,^  complained  bitterly 
in  his  private  correspondence  at  that  time,  that  he 
had  no  legal  power  to  punish  any  natives,  and  indeed 
could  be  tried  for  murder  if  any  native  was  shot  by  his 
orders.  2 

The  position  was  pointed  out  clearly  by  Sir  J.  Garrick, 
Agent-General  for  Queensland,  on  January  11,  1887,  at 
a  meeting  of  the  Colonial  Institute  in  London. 

"  It  is  clear,"  he  declared,  "  that  matters  cannot  con- 
tinue as  they  are."  There  was  no  remedy  for  a  state  of 
insecurity  for  hfe  and  property,  except  the  declaration  of 
British  sovereignty  in  order  to  establish  jurisdiction  over 
both  natives  and  foreigners,  and  provide  an  administra- 

*  See  ante,  p.  87. 

*  Letters  and  Memoir,  1893,  pp.  297,  391.  A  memo,  of  the  High 
Commissioner  of  February  26,  1881,  read  :  "  The  jurisdiction  of  the 
High  Commissioner  extends  over  all  British  subjects  in  the  Western 
Pacific,  but  over  British  subjects  exclusively.  He  has  no  authority 
whatever  to  deal,  whether  judicially  or  in  his  executive  capacity,  witli 
the  offences  of  natives  of  islands  not  under  dominion  of  the  Crown." 
PP.  1883,  c.  3814,  p.  6, 


94  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

tion  which  would  secure  imperial  and  Australian  interests 
while  adequately  protecting  native  interests. ^ 

This  speech  was  made  in  a  debate  following  upon  a 
paper  read  by  Chalmers,  which  was  probably  the  most 
eloquent  and,  without  doubt,  the  most  important  address 
he  ever  gave.  In  it  he  outHned  what  ought  to  be  the 
future  administrative  policy  in  New  Guinea,  and  he  took 
as  the  basis  for  it  the  pledge  made  to  the  natives  a  little 
over  two  years  before.  He  was  anxious,  and  emphati- 
cally urged  that  the  straight  path  marked  out  by  the 
proclamation  should  be  followed  ;  and  he  hoped  that 
"  we  should  never  break  faith  with  the  native." 

The  Colonial  Conference  of  1887  provided  an  oppor- 
tunity for  British  statesmen  to  review  the  whole  question 
in  council.  They  confirmed  the  sentence  passed  upon 
the  labour  trade  with  New  Guinea  three  years  before, 
and  the  pledge  there  given  to  the  natives  was  incorporated 
in  paragraph  10  of  the  Schedule  for  the  proposed  "  British 
New  Guinea  (Queensland  Act)  of  1887,"  which  read  : 

"  No  deportation  of  natives  to  be  allowed  either  from 
one  part  of  the  Territory  to  another  or  to  places  beyond 
the  Territory.  ..."  2 

Upon  the  Act  receiving  the  royal  assent,  instructions 
were  issued  to  the  first  Administrator  of  the  Territory 
June  8,  1888,  of  which  section  12  of  paragraph  10 
read  : 

'*  The  Administrator  shall  not  assent  to  any  Ordinance 
providing  for  deportation  of  natives  either  from  one  part 
of  the  Possession  to  another  or  to  places  beyond  the 
Possession."  ^ 

And  Sir  WiUiam  Macgregor  signed  an  Ordinance  pro- 

^  R.C.I.y  vol.  xviii.  p.  iii. 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Colonial  Conference.     PP.  1887,  c,  5091. 

'  Handbook  of  Papua ,  he.  cit.,  p.  108. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  95 

hibiting  such  deportation  immediately  upon  taking  up  his 
appointment. 1 

Perhaps  a  word  might  be  said  in  defence  of  this  legis- 
lation. The  bad  effect  of  the  labour  trade  upon  the 
relations  of  the  white  man  with  the  native  has  already 
been  sufficiently  emphasized. 

It  must  also  be  remembered  that  native  labour  procured 
under  such  conditions  was  never  satisfactory  or  of  a  long 
life,  for  the  savage,  enslaved  and  miserable  in  a  strange 
country,  and  usually  under  cruel  masters,  soon  fell  ill  and 
died  from  depression. 2 

On  the  other  hand  the  Papuan  was  found  to  show 
"  considerable  intelligence,"  and  to  be  an  "  excellent 
worker  "  in  his  accustomed  surroundings  under  good  em- 
ployers. The  Labour  Ordinance  therefore  gave  those  in 
industry  in  Papua  "  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  draw 
their  labour  supply  from  the  natives  of  the  territory,  thus 
obviating  the  heavy  expenses  of  importing  coolie  labour."  ^ 

^  Ordinance  III.  of  1888. 

*  In  answer  to  a  question  how  one  of  them  liked  plantation  life, 
during  the  inquiry  conducted  by  Commodore  Erskine,  a  native  replied, 
"  When  in  our  own  land,  work  well,  but  on  plantation,  all  cry,  work 
bad,  eat  nothing,  only  food  in  morning,  work,  work,  all  day,  in  evening 
too  tired  to  eat  pannikin  of  rice,"     PP.  1885,  c.  4273,  p.  108. 

^  Handbook  of  the  Territory  of  Papua,  he.  cit.,  p.  84,  85. 


CHAPTER  V 

"  NEW  GUINEA  FOR  THE  NEW  GUINEANS  " 

The  British  Government  of  the  time  has  been  much 
criticized  because  of  its  opposition  to  the  further  ex- 
tension of  the  Empire  in  the  Pacific.  But  although 
it  is  difficult,  even  impossible,  to  defend  the  attitude 
of  the  British  Colonial  Office,  in  refusing  to  take  responsi- 
bility for  the  islands  adjacent  to  Australia  and  New 
Zealand  until  it  was  forced  to  do  so  by  the  indignation 
aroused  in  the  Colonies  by  foreign  annexations,  and  by 
the  disorder  in  Pacific  waters,  their  attitude  to  unofficial 
enterprise  is  justifiable. 

Both  in  New  Zealand  and  in  Fiji  much  trouble  was 
stored  up  for  the  Government  by  the  Short-sighted  com- 
mercial poHcy  of  a  colonization  company,  and  so  its 
opposition  to  the  plans  of  any  company  formed  to 
colonize  New  Guinea  was  not  unreasonable. 

As  far  as  missionary  influence  affected  the  question 
it  strengthened  the  Government  in  their  attitude,  and 
missionaries  also  warned  them  of  attempts  to  flout  their 
policy. 

In  1875  a  deputation  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society 
waited  upon  Lord  Carnarvon  to  request  him  to  oppose 
the  project  of  the  Australasian  Colonization  Company, 
which  was  organizing  an  expedition  to  New  Guinea. 
Rev.  A.  W.  Murray  of  New  Guinea  and  Dr  Mullens, 
Foreign  Secretary  of  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
were  members  of  the  deputation. ^ 

1  November  17,  1875.     PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  p.  62. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  97 

In  1878  Acting-High  Commissioner  Gorrie  pointed 
out  to  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  the  objectionable  nature 
of  the  scheme.  The  Company  proposed  to  claim  60,000 
acres  for  plantation  and  50,000  more  if  gold  was  not 
discovered,  and  for  the  protection  of  its  servants,  five 
swivel  cannon  were  to  be  taken,  also  a  supply  of  small 
arms  and  ammunition,  and  a  circular  fort  of  boiler 
plate,  J-inch  thick,  pierced  for  rifles.^ 

It  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  Sir  M.  Hicks-Beach 
approved  of  the  reply  of  the  High  Commissioner  to  the 
Company  on  July  17,  1878,  declaring  that  he  would 
"  make  use  of  his  powers  to  oppose  .  .  .  any  enterprise 
calculated  to  compromise  the  Imperial  Government,  or 
Hkely  to  produce  colUsions  with  the  native  inhabitants 
of  New  Guinea,  which  might  seriously  embarrass  the 
future  relations  of  British  subjects  in  that  region."  2 

A  few  years  later  Lord  Derby  refused  permission  to 
Brigadier-General  H.  R.  Maciver  to  proceed  with  a  New 
Guinea  Trading  Corporation,  which  had  much  the  same 
views  of  colonization  methods  as  the  earher  company, 
in  spite  of  the  protestations  of  its  officers.^ 

The  characteristic  common  to  all  such  enterprises  was 
the  determination  to  buy  land  from  the  natives.  Where 
the  natives  were  unable  to  understand  a  selling  contract 
of  land,  and  the  colonizers  had  no  other  aim  beyond 
the  selfish  one  of  financial  interest,  it  was  not  unreason- 
able of  the  Government  to  fear  the  result,  or  unwise 
of  it  to  refuse  to  countenance  any  such  attempts  at 
settlement. 

It  is  doubtful,  though,  whether  the  chief  danger  to 
the  future  dependency  came  so  much  from  colonization 

»  August  19,  1S78.  PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  p.  53. 

•  PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  p.  47. 

»  November  1883.     PP.  1884,  c.  3863. 


98  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

companies  as  from  individuals.  So  much  preparation 
and  advertisement  was  required  in  order  to  finance 
an  expedition,  that  the  Government  could  not  fail  to 
hear  of  any  organized  attempt  to  colonize  the  country. 
Indeed  it  was  unlikely  that  any  such  attempt  would 
be  made  without  Government  permission.  Shareholders 
would  be  rendered  anxious  by  the  refusal  of  the  High 
Commissioner  to  protect  the  companies'  servants,  should 
they  be  attacked  by  the  natives,  and  they  would  be 
unlikely  to  run  the  risk  of  his  disapproval  growing  to 
armed  opposition,  as  Sir  A.  Gordon  seemed  to  threaten. 

But  a  single  enterprising  individual,  although  running 
graver  personal  risk,  might  escape  exposure,  and,  his 
dealings  being  on  a  much  smaller  scale,  he  might  even 
chance  to  have  his  claims  confirmed. 

Native  discontent,  however,  can  quickly  grow  from 
a  small  seed.  Both  in  its  possible  ultimate  effect 
upon  native  relations,  and  in  its  power  as  a  dangerous 
precedent,  the  sale  of  land  to  an  individual  was  as  much 
to  be  feared  as  the  sale  of  land  to  a  colonizing  company. 

The  first  attempt  of  an  individual  in  New  Guinea  to  buy 
land  as  a  speculation  was  also  the  last.  For  Chalmers 
and  Lawes  acted  promptly  in  directing  the  attention 
of  the  Government  to  the  fact,  and  to  the  dangers 
involved. 

Shortly  after  Chester  had  annexed  South-Eastern  New 
Guinea  to  Queensland,  a  trader  named  Goldie,  who  had 
been  successful  in  maintaining  friendship  with  the  natives, 
bought  nominally  on  behalf  of  a  Sydney  syndicate,  about 
15,000  acres  of  sugar  land.  The  various  accounts  of  the 
transaction  differ  in  the  details,  but  it  appears  that 
Goldie  and  a  surveyor  named  Cameron  were  offered  by 
a  native  of  the  Kabadi  tribe,  Paru,  this  land  which  in 
reaUty   belonged   to   the   chief,    Urevado.     Lawes   was 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  99 

apparently  persuaded  to  make  out  a  deed  in  Motu 
language,^  which  was  translated  then  by  a  native  teacher 
into  Kabadi.  The  price  paid  for  the  land  according  to 
Cameron  was  the  equivalent  of  £140  (which,  he  protested, 
was  more  than  he  had  ever  paid  for  land  in  Fiji  for  sugar 
or  cotton  growing). ^ 

On  October  17,  1883,  Baron  Maclay  drew  the  attention 
of  the  Colonial  Office  to  a  telegram  from  Chalmers  to 
the  Colonial  Secretary,  reporting  the  transaction.  On 
December  3,  Lord  Derby  telegraphed  to  the  Governor 
of  New  South  Wales  for  information.  The  latter  con- 
firmed the  news,  and  said  that  the  forthcoming  Con- 
vention would  probably  deal  with  such  cases.  On 
December  11,  G.  Palmer,  M.P.,  a  member  of  the 
Aborigines  Protection  Society,  forwarded  a  letter  from 
Lawes,  "  a  most  trustworthy  man,"  to  the  Colonial 
Office.3 

Lawes  asserted  that  only  about  £10  worth  of  trade 
was  given  for  the  land,  and  quotes  the  speculators'  own 
statement  that  they  only  gave  £70  worth.  "  They  have 
now  gone  along  the  coast  to  make  other  purchases  in 
the  same  way,"  he  continued.  "  We  feel  sure  that  if 
the  facts  of  the  case  are  laid  before  Her  Majesty's 
advisers,  they  will  never  sanction  the  wholesale  transfer 
of  native  lands,  especially  when  it  carries  with  it  no 
responsibility  with  regard  to  the  future  of  the  true  owners 
of  the  land."  If  the  Government  did  not  refuse  to 
recognize  "  any  purchase  of  land  from  natives  by  private 
individuals   .   .   .   collision  with  the  natives  is  inevitable, 

^  This  is  strange  in  view  of  the  opposition  of  Lawes  afterwards. 

*  Sydney  Morning  Herald,  November  23,  1883,  quoted  in  PP.  1884, 
c.  3863,  Cameron  asserts  that  the  acreage  was :  sugar,  1000  ;  cotton, 
2000;  and  some  swamp.  Chalmers  says  that  the  price  was  id.  per 
acre,  i.e.  half  the  figure  Cameron  gives. 

3  PP.  1884,  c.  3863. 


100  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

and  British  interests  will  be  damaged  for  the  aggrandize- 
ment of  a  few  land  grabbers  and  sugar  planters.  The 
evil  that  must  ensue  to  the  natives  is  self-evident.  A 
large  influx  of  foreigners,  for  whose  good  behaviour  no 
one  would  be  responsible,  and  who  would  be  under  no 
restraint  but  self-interest,  could  only  result  in  cruelty, 
wrong,  and  injustice.  The  natives  would  soon  be  cleared 
off  the  land." 

"  Whatever  the  relations  between  the  British  Govern- 
ment and  New  Guinea  may  be,  it  is  of  the  first  importance 
that  the  land  of  the  natives  should  not  be  at  the  mercy 
of  white  men  '  making  haste  to  be  rich.'  If  there  is 
to  be  any  transfer  of  native  land,  it  should  only  be 
through  the  representative  of  a  responsible  Government. 
Only  thus  can  anything  like  justice  be  secured  between 
barbarous  and  civihzed  races.   .   .   ." 

He  declared  that  it  was  the  interests  of  the  natives 
generally  that  had  to  be  considered,  and  continued  : 

"  Every  district,  such  as  that  of  Kabadi,  supplies  a 
large  outside  population  with  food  in  return  for  pottery 
and  other  articles  of  trade.  The  alienation  of  any  large 
tract  of  country  would  cut  off  the  food  supply  of  neigh- 
bouring places,  close  a  large  market,  and  stop  useful 
native  industries.  These  are  responsibilities  which  none 
but  a  representative  of  a  civilized  Government  can 
assume,  and  no  other  can  protect  native  interests." 

To  this  letter  and  enclosure  the  Colonial  Office  replied 
on  December  17,  sending  a  copy  of  their  reply  to  Acting- 
High  Commissioner  Gorrie,  saying  that  if  the  facts  were 
as  stated  "  as  they  appeared  to  be,"  H.M.  Government 
would  "  certainly  refuse  to  recognize  this  transaction 
or  any  other  of  a  similar  character,"  and  noted  with 
pleasure  that  the  Australian  Convention  would  support 
them. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUTNEA  loi 

Confirmation  of  the  story,  and  additional  emphasis 
upon  the  important  principle  of  policy  involved  in  it 
came  from  Sir  H.  H.  Palmer,  Administrator  of  Queens- 
land, who  wrote  to  Lord  Derby,  under  date  October  24, 
as  follows  : 

"It  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  point  out  to  your 
Lordship  the  very  serious  difficulties  which  are  likely 
to  arise,  if  speculative  Europeans  are  permitted  to  trade 
upon  the  ignorance  and  simpHcity  of  the  natives  of  New 
Guinea.  ...  It  is  highly  undesirable  that  the  troubles 
experienced  in  New  Zealand  and  Fiji  should  be  repeated 
in  the  case  of  New  Guinea."  He  concluded  by  arguing 
that  "  British  rule  in  some  form  or  other  would  have 
to  be  established."  Sir  H.  Palmer's  attention  had  been 
drawn  to  the  transaction  by  a  letter  from  Chalmers  to 
the  Colonial  Secretary,  and  by  a  report  in  the  Brisbane 
Courier.  Both  the  letter  and  the  newspaper  cutting 
he  enclosed  to  Lord  Derby  in  order  to  give  greater 
support  to  his  view. 

Chalmers's  letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Mcllwraith  is  dated 
September  24.     It  is  worth  quoting  almost  in  full. 

*'  My  dear  Sir  Thomas,"  he  writes,  "  remembering 
your  request,  that  if  we  had  anything  to  report  we  should 
do  so  direct  to  the  Colonial  Secretary,  who  would  attend 
to  the  same,  I  therefore  beg  to  draw  your  attention  to 
the  following  sale  of  land  at  Kabadi,  off  Redscar  Bay, 
one  of  the  finest  districts  in  New  Guinea."  ^ 

After  describing  the  circumstances  of  the  sale,  he 
pointed  out  that  apart  from  the  illegahty  of  it,  the  system 
of  buying  land  from  the  natives  was  bad,  and  would 
lead  to  serious  trouble  in  the  future.     No  native  thought 

*  It  seems  probable  that  this  request  was  made  at  the  interview 
which  Chalmers  had  ^nth  Sir  T.  Mcllwraith  in  Brisbane  earlier  in  the 
year,  already  referred  to,  ante,  p.  90. 


icr2.  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

that  he  was  parting  with  his  land  for  ever,  nor  did  he 
imagine  that  any  other  one  would  come  on  to  it  but 
he  who  had  paid  the  tomahawk,  or  that  on  his  leaving 
or  dying  the  land  would  not  revert  to  its  original  owner. 

"  These  natives  are  like  children,"  Chalmers  asserted, 
"  the  glitter  of  the  new  tomahawk  will  draw  from  them 
their  best  and  only  real  treasure — their  land." 

Land  sales  now  would  be  harmful  later,  for  instead  of 
a  responsible  government  to  care  for  ousted  natives 
there  would  be  selfish  capitaHsts,  who  would  care  nothing 
for  the  natives. 

He  corroborated  Lawes  as  to  the  economic  importance 
of  the  land  claimed  and  continued  : 

"  The  present  purchasers  think  it  is  a  missionary  dodge, 
and  that  we  are  merely  through  spleen,  or  something  else, 
opposing  them,  but  I  assure  you,  my  dear  Sir  Thomas, 
it  is  nothing  of  the  kind  ;  it  is  not  merely  because  we 
are  missionaries  that  we  are  determined  to  use  all  our 
influence  to  upset  this  land  scheme,  but  because  we  as 
men  feel  it  to  be  an  unjust  act  to  the  ignorant  natives 
and  an  injustice  to  any  government  that  may  come 
hereafter.  Why  begin  now  in  New  Guinea  what  has 
caused  so  much  trouble  in  New  Zealand,  Fiji,  and  Samoa  ? 
Let  it  be  distinctly  understood  that  no  native  can  sell 
land,  but  through  a  Government  officer,  and  no  land 
sales  made  in  any  other  way  will  be  recognized,  and  this 
land  lifting  will  be  stopped." 

There  is  not  space  to  quote  the  article  from  the 
Brisbane  Courier,^  but  it  is  interesting  for  the  marks 
it  bears  of  having  been,  if  not  written,  at  least  inspired 
by  Chalmers.  Many  phrases  in  the  private  letter  occur 
almost  word  for  word  in  the  article.  It  was  about  this 
time  that  he  was  a  correspondent  for  a  leading  colonial 

1  October  20,  1883. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  103 

newspaper,^  but  although  he  may  have  written  most  of 
this  particular  article,  he  can  hardly  have  been  respon- 
sible for  it,  since  it  contains  a  vivid  description  of  "  the 
Tyrant  missionary  .  .  .  who  would  not  be  kept  back 
from  asserting  native  rights."  The  fact  that  Sir  H. 
Palmer  relies  upon  the  historical  argument  of  Chalmers 
may  not  unfairly  be  taken  as  an  indication  of  the 
impression  which  Chalmers  was  able  to  make  upon 
Administrators  by  the  forcible  expression  of  his  views.^ 

Soon  after  this,  Theodore  Bevan  attempted  to  obtain 
permission  to  form  a  Trading  Company  on  the  lines  of 
the  North  Borneo  Company.  One  gathers  that  his  first 
interview  with  Sir  Peter  Scratchley  was  not  entirely  un- 
successful. At  least  he  did  not  receive  a  direct  negative, 
and  was  given  a  permit  "to  explore  and  trade."  But 
he  says  that  the  Special  Commissioner's  attitude  under- 
went a  change,  and  became  "  cold  and  stiff  towards  him." 
This  he  ascribes  to  the  influence  of  Chalmers  and  Lawes, 
especially  the  former.  He  alleges  that  he  had  a  stormy 
interview  with  Chalmers,  who  lost  his  temper,  reproached 
him  for  his  attitude  to  the  missionaries,  and  threatened 
that  he  would  tell  General  Scratchley  to  send  him  back 
to  Cooktown.  This  interview,  he  adds,  was  followed  by 
a  warning  from  Scratchley  not  to  write  against  the 
missionaries.  He  never  received  permission  to  form  his 
Company  from  Scratchley,  and  after  the  latter's  death 
received  from  his  successor  a  definite  refusal.^ 

*  Chalmers  writes  of  this  on  April  4,  1884,  but  does  not  divulge 
the  name  of  the  newspaper.     {Autobiography,  p.  226.) 

«  PP.  1884,  c.  3863. 

^  Bevan,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  15,  107,  135,  136,  153,  175.  Sevan's  version  is 
probably  true,  Chalmers  suggests  that  his  wife  complained  of  his  lack 
of  calmness.  "  Another  day  she  said  to  me,  '  You  know,  Tamate  dear, 
you  are  always  in  such  a  hurry,  you  make  people  feel  very  uncomfortable. 
Now  at  your  time  of  life  try  and  take  things  a  little  easier,  and  all  your 


104  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

Thus  it  is  not  surprising  that  Bevan  formed  a  hostile 
opinion  of  the  Protectorate  administration,  declaring 
that  neither  Scratchley  nor  Douglas  assisted  him,  but 
rather  thwarted  him.^  However,  it  was  perhaps  fortun- 
ate that  they  did.  Bevan's  view  of  his  own  importance, 
combined  with  his  lack  of  sympathy  for  the  natives, 
suggest  that  his  company  would  hardly  liave  made 
things  easier  for  the  Administrator.^ 

Fortunately,  too,  the  first  Administrator  who  succeeded 
Hon.  J.  Douglas  had  very  strong  views  upon  the  native 
question,  and  though  Bevan  received  from  him  a  pohte 
answer  to  his  request  for  land,  it  was  non-committal.^ 
Sir  WilUam  Macgregor  was,  however,  very  far  from 
non-committal  in  Ordinances,  and  in  his  views  set  forth 
in  his  first  report,  and  in  the  official  pubHcation  upon 
British  New  Guinea. 

"  It  may  be  stated  briefly,"  he  declared  in  the  report, 
"  that  so  far,  no  district  has  been  found  in  the  Possession 
in  which  any  plan  for  the  settlement  of  Europeans  could 
be  carried  out.  This  was  owing  to  the  good  lands  on 
high  and  drier  ground  being  occupied  by  the  natives."  * 
And  in  the  Handbook  he  wrote,  two  years  later  "... 
the  Government  will  not,  and  cannot  deprive  any 
native  of  his  land.    This  policy  has  been  deliberately 

friends  will  feel  more  comfortable."  Chalmers's  Autobiography,  p.  462. 
And  in  1883  Chalmers  wrote,  "  I  have  become  sort  of  savage  .  .  .  very 
unsociable  I  am  told,"  p.  242,  *  Bevan.     Ibid.,  p.  283. 

2  The  Special  Commissioner,  in  referring  to  an  application  for  land 
from  Bevan  in  1888,  writes,  "that  he  thought  his  estimate  of  254,000 
acres  as  a  return  for  his  discoveries  much  beyond  what  .  .  .  would  be 
an  equivalent  for  the  discoveries  made  by  that  gentleman."  (PP.  1889, 
c.  5620-3.)  "  The  shiftless  aboriginal  "  must  learn  "  to  bend  his  back 
to  the  yoke  of  Adam's  curse  or  make  room  for  those  who  will."  Bevan, 
p.  276. 

3  Bevan.     Ibid.,  pp.  269,  271. 

*  Queensland,  PP.  c.c.  105-1890, 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  105 

adopted  by  the  three  contributing  colonies  and  sanctioned 
by  the  Imperial  Government.  The  great  majority  of 
the  natives  are  agriculturalists,  and  live  on  the  produce 
of  their  lands,  which  are  handed  down  from  parent  to 
child  and  from  one  relative  to  another."  ^ 

There  was  now  a  moderate  area  of  land  available  (between 
three  and  four  thousand  acres),  and  the  circumstances 
of  the  Possession  had  become  such  as  to  make  it  the 
duty  of  the  Government  to  try  to  attract  the  working 
settler  possessed  of  some  capital.  For  the  speculator 
in  land  the  country  offered  no  field  ;  but  land  could  be 
obtained  for  planting  purposes. 

Thus  from  the  first  the  native  of  New  Guinea  has 
been  protected  from  exploitation  by  the  white  adventurer, 
and  here  at  least  British  statesmen  have  not  made  ill 
use  of  "  one  of  the  finest  opportunities  "  ever  offered 
them. 

The  immediate  result  of  this  policy  was  that  an 
administration  was  established  and  maintained  in  the 
dependency  "  without  a  single  soldier  "  ;  although  an 
*'  experienced  Australian  Governor "  had  advised  the 
Colonial  Office  "  that  as  the  expenditure  on  the  Maori 
War  had  cost  £12,000,000  the  acquisition  of  Papua 
might  cost  as  much."  2 

The  ultimate  result  cannot  be  estimated.  Only  we 
know  that  in  the  evolution  of  an  Empire  which  owes  the 
stability  of  its  constitutional  growth  to  a  regard  of  its 
rulers  for  precedent,  a  precedent  such  as  this  for  the 
disinterested  administration  of  a  native  dependency 
cannot  but  be  vital. 

The    part    played    by    the    missionaries    in    forming 

^  Handbook  of  Information,  1892. 

*  Sir  W.  Macgregor  in  the  Scottish  Geographical  Magazine,  May  191 8, 
quoting  Governor  Sir  G.  F.  Bowen  in  PP.  1876,  c.  1566,  p.  11. 


io6  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

this  precedent  is  clear,  as  far  as  the  period  before  the 
Protectorate  is  concerned.  It  was  due  to  them  that 
it  was  "  a  clean  page  "  ^  upon  which  the  lay  statesmen 
started  to  write. 

It  is  not  so  clear,  as  regards  the  later  period.  It  is 
difficult  to  estimate  how  much  the  support,  accorded 
by  better  formed  pubHc  opinion  to  the  principle  enunci- 
ated by  Chalmers,^  was  due  to  the  personal  influence 
of  the  latter,  and  to  that  of  other  missionaries. 

In  1888  for  instance  the  Chief  Justice  of  Queensland  at 
the  Royal  Colonial  Institute  spoke  strongly  against  "  the 
cession  from  the  natives  of  a  single  inch  of  land."  He 
would  allow  "  no  land-speculators  to  enter  New  Guinea 
at  present,"  and  he  thought  that  "  the  Protectorate 
should  be  a  strict  protectorate." 

He  was  supporting  at  this  meeting  the  appeal  of  Powell 
to  save  New  Guinea  from  "  such  a  calamity  as  the  landing 
of  irresponsible  adventurers  would  inflict." 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  how  far  Sir  Charles  Lilley 
and  others  like  him  owed  their  opinion  to  Chalmers's 
vigorous  advocacy.  But  it  can  be  safely  asserted  that 
this  vigorous  advocacy  by  personal  interview,^  by 
lectures,*  by  articles  in  the  press,^  and  by  published 

1  Sir  Charles  Lilley  in  1888,  at  the  R.C.I. 

*  R.C.I. ,  January  11,  1887,  p.  106,  "New Guinea  for  the  NevvGuineans 
and  the  New  Guineans  for  New  Guinea." 

^  E.g.  November  11,  1886,  Chalmers  visited  Sir  R.  Herbert  "and 
went  over  New  Guinea  affairs."  {Autobiography,  p.  270.)  Herbert 
at  that  time  was  Under-Secretary.  See  also  ante,  p.  loi,  and 
p.  90. 

*  E.g.  R.C.I. ,  January  11,1887,  see  ante,  pp.  60-62.  June  5,  1887, 
a  meeting  at  Inverary  with  the  Duke  of  Argyll  in  the  chair. 
In  August  1887  to  the  R.G.S.  of  Australia  in  Adelaide.  During  August 
he  attended  many  meetings,  including  one  in  Melbourne,  at  which  Sir 
Henry  and  Lady  Loch  were  present.     {Autobiography,  pp.  283,  289.) 

5  E.g.  ante,  p.  103. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  107 

books  1  carried  on  not  only  by  Chalmers  but  also  by 
Lawes  cannot  have  been  fruitless.  There  is  ample  evi- 
dence of  the  power  of  their  personality  in  the  letters  and 
journals  of  those  who  came  in  contact  with  them.  It 
is  not  likely  that  the  power  they  wielded  was  only 
effective  in  conversation. 

Indeed  if  Chalmers's  journal  is  to  be  beheved — and  there 
seems  no  reason  to  doubt  its  truth — the  Government  itself 
did  not  close  its  eyes  to  the  value  of  Chalmers's  opinion. 
On  May  5  he  writes  that  he  saw  the  Earl  of  Onslow  at 
Northampton  who  "  only  wanted  me  to  know  that  the 
government  of  New  Guinea  would  be  very  much  on  the 
lines  of  my  books  and  papers,"  but  the  real  reason  was  to 
hint  at  a  government  position  for  him  if  he  applied. 
Chalmers,  however,  was  quite  content  to  continue  working 
through  his  personal  influence,  and  with  a  touch  of  conceit 
he  comments,  "  They  would  Uke  me  to  apply.  I  will  have 
them  ask  me  for  a  negative."  ^ 

Much,  however,  of  the  credit  for  the  direction  of  British 
policy  in  New  Guinea  has  been  given,  and  no  doubt  rightly 
given,  to  Sir  WilUam  Macgregor,  who  fulfilled  the  descrip- 
tion given  by  Chalmers  ^  of  the  Administrator,  "  that  the 
dependency  would  require  a  man  .  .  .  accustomed  to 
deal  with  natives,  a  man  of  firmness  and  commonsense, 

^  E.g.  Work  and  Adventure  in  New  Guinea,  1885.  In  the  Introduction 
it  is  noted  that  the  English  press  was  deeply  stirred  at  Germany's 
annexation  of  the  Northern  coast,  but  that  the  missionary  enterprise  on 
the  Southern  coast  was  hardly  noticed.  Chalmers  forecasts  the  ultimate 
annexation  by  Great  Britain,  and  suggests  the  line  of  policy.  As  New 
Guinea  was  of  strategic  rather  than  commercial  value  to  Great  Britain 
the  Government  should  be  for  the  native  races  not  the  white  men. 
(This  outline  of  policy  was  afterwards  made  the  basis  for  his  lecture 
before  the  R.C.I. ,  1887.) 

2  Autobiography,  p.  271.  The  writer  has  attempted  without  success 
to  corroborate  this.     But  Chalmers's  ovm  evidence  is  suflScicnt. 

3  R.C.I.,  January  i: 


io8  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

who  will  choose  his  own  subordinates,  and  who  can  act 
independently  of  missionaries  (sic)  or  beachmen,  and  who 
will  not  fear  the  attacks  of  small  colonial  papers.  Your 
men  of  red-tape  and  wax,  without  real  knowledge  and 
stamina,  are  unfitted  for  the  work,  and  an  ounce  of 
commonsense  taught  by  native  experience  is  worth  more 
than  tons  of  folios  of  reports,  investigations,  etc.'* 

But  although  one  can  agree  with  Judge  J.  H.  P.  Murray 
that  "  it  was  to  Sir  W.  Macgregor  that  we  owe  the  fact 
that  this  humane  and  enHghtened  native  pohcy  became 
a  recognized  part  of  the  Government  programme,"  ^  it  is 
only  fair  to  the  missionaries  to  add  that  had  it  not  been 
for  them  there  might  not  have  existed  any  such  policy 
to  be  recognized. 

Mr  Fletcher  goes  so  far  as  to  suggest  that  Macgregor 
owed  his  views  on  the  land  question  to  his  contact  with 
Rev.  Lorimer  Fison  in  Fiji,  declaring  that  in  his  pamphlet 
on  Land  Tenure  in  Fiji,  Fison  "  started  the  policy  which 
is  affecting,  or  has  already  affected,  British  administration 
everywhere  in  the  Pacific.  This  includes  British  New 
Guinea,  now  under  Australian  control,  where  Sir  William 
Macgregor,  ten  years  after  Lorimer  Fison's  lecture  was 
delivered  at  Levuka,  laid  down  lines  in  dealing  with  the 
lands  of  the  Possession  which  have  not  since  been  departed 
from."  A  few  pages  previously  Mr  Fletcher  had  declared 
that  "  the  name  which  comes  up  in  the  Pacific  as  that  of 
the  scientific  exponent  of  native  needs  and  traditions  is 
not  his  own  (Sir  W.  Macgregor's)  or  Sir  Arthur  Gordon's 
but  Lorimer  Fison's."  ^ 

In  addition  to  the  necessity  of  protecting  the  native 

1  Papua  or  British  New  Guinea,  Introduction,  p.  8i  (1912). 

»  The  New  Pacific.  C.  Brunsdon  Fletcher,  191 7,  pp.  173,  146.  Mr 
Fletcher's  opinion  was  formed  after  examining  the  unpublished  corre- 
spondence of  Lorimer  Fison  {ibid.,  p.  172). 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  109 

from  land  speculators  by  prohibiting  the  sale  of  land,  the 
Government  of  the  Possession  had  also  to  protect  both 
races  from  the  apple,  or  rather  in  this  case,  the  bottle,  of 
discord  which  unscrupulous  traders  were  only  too  ready 
to  throw  amongst  them.  But  after  the  lesson  of  New 
Zealand  no  competent  administrator  was  likely  to  prove 
laggard  in  legislating  against  the  traffic  in  both  liquor  and 
firearms.  And  in  any  case  it  was  expressly  laid  down 
in  the  British  New  Guinea  Act  of  1888  that  "  the  Admini- 
strator shall  not  assent  to  any  Ordinance  providing  for 
the  supply  of  arms,  ammunition,  intoxicants,  or  opium 
to  the  natives." 

The  missionary  influence  in  this  case  was  upon  public 
opinion  in  the  days  before  the  Protectorate,  when  the 
traffic  was  in  full  swing  at  many  of  the  islands  of  the 
Pacific,  and  when  it  was  necessary  that  attention  should 
be  drawn  to  the  ensuing  evils. 

Owing  to  his  experience  of  the  drink  traffic  at  Raro- 
tonga,  Chalmers  went  to  New  Guinea  determined  that  if 
possible  that  country  should  be  saved  the  troubles  brought 
upon  other  islands  such  as  Rarotonga  by  "  drunken 
beach-combers  "  and  "  the  miserable  traders  from  Tahiti 
.  .  .  who  would  sell  their  own  souls  to  make  a  few 
dollars." 

But  although  he  was  always  active  in  defending  his 
beloved  natives  from  any  menace  of  that  kind,^  neither 
he,  nor  the  other  missionaries  who  did  the  same,  were 
unsupported  in  their  fight  by  the  laymen,  including 
those  holding  responsible  posts. ^    And  one  of  the  first 

^  E.g.  In  letter  to  Lord  Derby,  and  in  a  letter  to  a  fellow  missionary 
to  stand  fast  upon  this  question  {ante,  p.  88) 

*  E.g.  La  Meslee  at  the  meeting  in  1883,  already  referred  to  (see  ante, 
pp.  46,  47),  hoped  that  the  Government  would  exercise  control  over 
the  first  settlers,  especially  with  regard  to  the  sale  of  firearms,  liquor,  etc. 

Acting-High    Commissioner    Gorrie  wrote  to  Sir  M.   Hicks-Beach, 


no  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

Ordinances  of  Sir  William  Macgregor  prohibited  the 
supply  of  either  firearms  or  liquor  to  the  natives,  and  made 
it  illegal  for  natives  to  have  firearms  in  their  possession, 
unless  with  special  permission, ^ 

It  would  be  more  true,  probably,  to  say  that  the  admini- 
strators and  the  British  Government  were  not  unsupported 
by  the  missionaries  in  their  measures  against  the  liquor 
and  arms  traffic,  and  that  this  support  was  chiefly  valuable 
in  its  effect  upon  public  opinion. 

October  14,  1878,  agreeing  with  Chester  upon  the  advisabiUty  of  a  penal 
law  to  deal  with  the  liquor  traffic.     (PP.  1883,  c.  3617,  p.  87.) 

1  Ordinance  No.  i  of  1888  (Q.  PP.  c,  A.  13-1890).  Permits  for  fire- 
arms for  special  purposes  were  issued  to  78  non-Europeans  during 
period  September  1888- June  1889,  of  which  45  were  to  agents  of  the 
L.M.S.  for  procuring  food. 


CHAPTER  VI 

"  THE  NEW  GUINEANS  FOR  NEW  GUINEA  " 

To  safeguard  the  rights  of  the  native  to  his  land,  how- 
ever, was  by  itself  but  a  negative  policy,  which  the 
enterprising  white  could  have  attacked  with  some  justice. 
For  it  would  have  meant  that  the  development  of  the 
dependency  would  have  been  much  hindered.  The 
natives  both  of  Polynesia  and  of  Melanesia  were  accus- 
tomed to  produce  only  what  was  required  for  their  own 
necessities,  and  had  no  ambition  to  develop  their  land 
beyond  a  point  sufficient  to  satisfy  these.  In  New 
Zealand  the  Maori  became  demoralized  on  becoming  a 
landlord,^ 'and  in  Fiji  and  in  the  Solomon  Islands  he  is 
rapidly  becoming  so  for  the  same  reason.  "  The  native 
Fijian  will  not  work,"  writes  Mr  Fletcher.  "  Why  should 
he  ?  A  paternal  government  has  secured  him  in  the 
possession  of  his  lands,  and  now  he  is  able  to  draw 
a  substantial  income  from  them.  .  .  .  Naturally  the 
natives  feel  independent  in  a  country  where  food  may  be 
grown  at  a  minimum  of  cost  and  labour,  and  where  the 
sun  is  a  continual  source  of  profit  for  lazy  folk  who  are 

*  The  necessity  of  assisting  the  Maori  to  settle  his  own  lands  was  never 
properly  recognized  (by  legislation)  "  and  the  spectacle  was  presented 
of  a  people  starving  in  the  midst  of  plenty."  (Report  of  Commission  of 
1907,  quoted  by  Scholefield,  New  Zealand  in  Evolution,  1909,  p.  341.) 

The  Treaty  of  Waitangi  established  a  native  landed  aristocracy,  and 
the  Government,  by  preserving  native  rights  without  encouraging  the 
natives  to  perform  the  duties  of  citizenship  in  helping  to  develop  the 
country,  put  a  premium  on  laziness  and  did  the  native  race  grave  injury. 
(Scholefield,  ibid.,  p.  334.) 


112  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

content  to  live  on  bananas,  bread-fruit,  yams,  and  young 
coco-nuts."  1  Similarly  the  Solomon  islander  who  has 
nuts  in  his  possession  has  a  bank  account  upon  which  he 
draws.  He  does  not  need  to  work,  with  the  result  that 
the  planter  who  wishes  to  cultivate  the  coco-nut  on  a 
large  scale  finds  it  difficult  to  obtain  labour.  ^ 

The  German  solved  the  labour  problem  easily  by  using 
forced  labour.  At  present,  although  there  is  not  much 
written  evidence  about  his  treatment  of  the  native,  there 
is  sufficient  to  establish  the  fact  of  the  principle  upon 
which  the  German  developed  his  possessions,  which  was, 
simply,  to  dragoon  the  native,  take  his  land,  and  put  him 
under  Prussian  official  discipline.  The  native  was  not 
considered  to  be  a  fellow  creature,  but  was  treated  as  a 
chattel.  In  the  early  days  of  German  expansion  there 
were  probably  some  ugly  blots  upon  its  record,  but  in 
recent  years,  before  the  w^ar,  they  became  comparatively 
benevolent  in  their  slave-driving,  since  it  paid  to  keep 
their  slaves  alive  and  docile.^ 

But  for  England  the  problem  was  more  difficult,  since 
she  entered  the  Western  Pacific  partly  to  protect  the 
native,  and  wanted  the  development  of  her  Pacific 
possessions  to  follow  lines  consistent  with  that  aim. 

1  Fletcher.     The  New  Pacific,  p.  52. 

2  Ihid.,  p.  197. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  103,  160,  162,  168,  262,  etc. 

The  mystery  in  which  German  methods  in  the  Pacific  are  shrouded 
has  been  regretted  by  Mr  Fletcher  in  his  Stevenson's  Germany,  the  Case 
against  Germany  in  the  Pacific.  He,  however,  while  admitting  that  he 
is  forced  to  argue  much  from  suggestion,  asserts  that  "in  Samoa  itself 
Germans  for  nearly  forty  years  were  slave-owners  and  slave-drivers — 
in  the  sense  that  the  natives  employed  by  them  were  not  free  agents, 
neither  at  the  moment  of  engagement  nor  in  the  manner  of  their  employ- 
ment .  .  .  and  right  through  the  ocean  German  ways  with  the  natives 
have  been  full  of  treachery,  deceit,  and  devilishness.  The  German  trade 
and  labour  ideal  has  been  to  make  as  much  profit  as  possible  without 
reference  to  law  or  gospel."     (Published  1920,  pp.  73,  74,  etc  ) 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  113 

Unfortunately  little  progress  was  made  in  the  ideal, 
owing  to  the  form  which  the  method  took ;  and,  in  pro- 
tecting the  native  from  the  white  man,  the  early  admini- 
strators never  realized  that  the  native  had  also  to  be 
protected  from  himself.  Thus  in  New  Zealand  and  in 
Fiji  there  is  a  danger  that  the  native  races  will  die  out 
from  inertia.  If  that  ever  happens  the  epitaph  upon 
their  graves  will  be,  "  Here  He  those  who  died  as  a  result 
of  the  efforts  of  their  well-meaning  friends  to  save  them." 

It  was  only  after  a  hundred  years  of  British  rule  that 
the  colonist  of  New  Zealand  awoke  to  the  fact  that  the 
Maori  race  was  dying  out,  because  "  the  necessity  of 
assisting  the  Maori  to  settle  his  own  lands  was  never 
properly  recognized,"  and  that  he  could  only  be  preserved 
by  encouraging  and  training  him  to  become  an  industrious 
citizen.  1 

In  contrast  to  this  the  first  Governor  of  British  New 
Guinea  aimed  at  educating  the  native  character  under 
protection,  so  that  the  native  could  ultimately  play  a 
large  part  in  the  development  of  his  country. 

Here  again  there  is  a  striking  similarity  between  the 
views  of  Macgregor  and  Chalmers.  For  Chalmers,  in  his 
declaration  at  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute,  did  not  merely 
cry  **  New  Guinea  for  the  New  Guineans,"  but  also  "  The 
New  Guineans  for  New  Guinea."  He  realized  that  the 
last  was  the  necessary  complement  of  the  first.  There  is 
justification  for  guessing  that  Chalmers  drew  the  attention 
of  Macgregor  to  this,  for  Macgregor  only  came  to  New 
Guinea  in  1888,  and  as  early  as  1885  Chalmers's  book  had 
been  pubUshed,  in  which  he  suggested  that,  in  the  event 
of  British  sovereignty  being  declared,  the  dependency 
should  be  governed  through  the  native  chiefs  by  officers, 
who  were  to  superintend  and  encourage  the  natives  to 

^  Scholefield,  loc  cit.,  p.  341, 


114  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

work  plantations. 1  This  suggestion  Chalmers  elaborated 
later  in  his  speech  at  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute, 
although,  according  to  his  biographer,  most  of  the  paper 
had  been  written  in  1885. 

*'  Teach  our  natives,  encourage  them  in  trade,  and  they 
will  never  want  your  charity,"  Chalmers  assured  those 
who  were  frightened  of  the  expense.  "  Encourage  the 
natives  in  raising  produce  suitable  for  the  Australian 
markets,"  he  continued,  "  education  will  soon  cause  a 
demand  for  imported  produce.  Give  them  that  to 
cultivate  which  will  enable  them  to  meet  their  wants, 
and  a  market  near  at  hand  which  will  take  all  they 
grow."  He  advocated  native- worked  plantations  under 
English  oiftcers  governing  through  the  native  chiefs. 
'*  Traders  would  soon  swarm,  but  no  one  should  be 
allowed  to  trade  with  the  natives  directly  but  only  through 
the  Government.  If  coco-nuts  were  planted  ...  a  good 
trade  in  copra  could  be  created."  He  cited  as  an  example 
of  the  possibihties  of  this  poHcy  the  Hula  natives  who 
were  induced  by  an  L.M.S.  native  teacher  from  Eastern 
Polynesia  to  make  plantations  which  became  a  market  for 
other  tribes. 2 

1  Work  and  A  dventure  in  New  Guinea,  1 885,  pp .  1 7, 1 8 .    A  utohiography, 

pp.  255-257. 

An  undated  note  by  Sir  Peter  Scratchley  appears  in  his  collected 
papers  before  an  entry  in  his  journal,  dated  August  1885.  "  The  only 
hopeof  making  New  Guinea  pay  is  by  the  employment  of  the  natives.  .  .  . 
New  Guinea  must  be  governed  by  the  natives  for  the  natives."  {Papers ^ 
p.  302.)  In  view  of  the  fact  of  Scratchley's  dependence  upon  the 
missionaries  for  advice  (see  post,  p.  120,  and  Papers,  p.  315),  this  note 
bears  out,  by  its  similarity  to  Chalmers's  text  (above),  the  suggestion  that 
Chalmers  and  not  Macgregor  was  the  originator  of  the  policy  of  develop- 
ing the  country  by  the  help  of  the  inhabitants. 

*  R.C.I. ,  January  11,  1887,  pp.  105,  106. 

It  is  curious  to  notice  that  an  initiative  in  regard  to  trade  should  come 
from  the  missionaries  who  have  often  been  attacked  for  their  alleged 
hostility  to  it,  and  that  in  one  case  at  least  it  was  the  traders  who 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  115 

For  the  first  few  years  of  his  administration  Sir  William 
Macgregor  was  content  to  establish  law  and  order  over 
the  Possession,  but  in  1892  he  started  to  carry  out  the 
poHcy  outhned  by  Chalmers  in  1885  and  1887.  In  that 
year  he  wrote  in  the  Official  Handbook  that  the  Govern- 
ment "  was  sufficiently  firmly  established  to  protect 
settlers  and  to  maintain  law  and  order  in  the  more 
accessible  districts."  "  As  tribes  become  more  settled 
they  have  on  their  hands  more  leisure  than  was  formerly 
the  case.  It  was  very  desirable  that  this  should  be  turned 
to  some  use  ;  that  they  and  the  European  settlers  should 
mutually  benefit  each  other,  the  one  by  working  with  his 
hands  for  the  other,  while  at  the  same  time  becoming 
acquainted  with  new  products  and  new  industries,  the 
advantage  of  which  he  would  learn  from  his  employer." 

Accordingly  he  made  it  "  obligatory  upon  the  natives 
in  the  coastal  villages,  and  as  far  inland  as  the  conditions 
would  allow,  to  plant  coco- nuts.  Each  man  was  to  be 
responsible  for  his  quota,  and  the  trees  he  planted  were 
to  be  native  property."  Mr  Fletcher  notices  this 
Ordinance  as  an  example  of  the  imagination  of  Macgregor, 
but  the  records  of  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute  suggest  that 
it  was  Chalmers  and  not  Macgregor  who  "  could  see  in  his 
mind's  eye  a  great  stretch  of  coco-nut  palms  in  native 
possession,  providing  stores  of  food  against  famine,  ample 
nuts  for  the  making  of  copra  and  the  stimulation  of  trade, 
and  in  expanding  revenue  for  the  purposes  of  administra- 

hampered  the  development  of  it.  The  Cavendish  banana  introduced 
into  the  Pacific  by  John  WiUiams  the  missionary,  which  might  be  grown 
in  large  quantities  in  New  Guinea,  has  had  to  compete  with  the 
Queensland  banana  grown  largely  by  Chinese  and  protected  by  a  heavy 
duty,  and  with  the  Fijian  banana.  The  Australian  "  will  pay  sixpence 
a  dozen  for  Fijian  bananas,  very  often  twice  as  much,  yet  here  are 
bunches  by  the  hundred  thousand  waiting  his  word  if  he  will  put  his 
hand  upon  his  own  government."  {The  New  Pacific,  pp.  57,  58  252, 
233) 


Ii6  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

tion."  1  Nevertheless  it  is  to  the  credit  of  the  Admini- 
strator that  he  had  the  imagination  to  see  the  vision  of 
the  missionary. 

This  Regulation,  however,  did  not  immediately  take 
effect. 

Sir  George  Le  Hunte  writes  that  "  there  was  no  means 
of  enforcing  it,  and  practically  it  was  purely  optional  in 
the  native  to  obey  it  or  not.  ...  It  was  left  to  the 
district  magistrates  to  encourage  the  planting  without 
trying  to  enforce  it — they  could  only  enforce  it  on  those 
willing  to  obey."  ^ 

Sir  W.  Macgregor  also  started  Government  plantations 
at  the  District  Magistrate  stations  worked  principally  by 
prison  labour,  but  these  made  little  progress  "  owing  to 
the  limited  revenue  available  to  run  them."  ^ 

But  immediately  before  the  war  the  outlook  was  im- 
proving. In  1913  about  350,000  acres  were  under 
cultivation  by  the  natives  for  their  own  use;  with  an 
average  of  one  hundred  trees  per  acre.*  And  the  following 
year  Judge  Murray,  after  drawing  attention  to  the  diffi- 
culties of  enforcing  the  Regulation,  reported  that  they 
were  being  overcome,  and  that  the  natives  were  generally 
being  persuaded  to  obey  it.^ 

It  was  of  course  hardly  to  be  expected  that  the  progress 
of  the  Possession  would  come  up  to  the  lofty  ideal  of  the 
missionaries.  Methods  so  constantly  break  down,  even 
when  the  ideal  is  clearly  seen  ;  for  methods  depend 
upon  the  average  man  in  the  subordinate  position,  and 
although  the  artist  may  have  a  true  inspiration,  and 
from  his  imagination  create  a  design  for  a  noble  building, 

^  The  New  Pacific,  pp.  248,  249, 

*  See  post,  p.  123  (footnote  i). 

®  Official  Handbook,  1913,  c.  4652,  p.  38, 

*  Ihid.,  p.  38. 

6  Report  in  191 4  (quoted  in  The  New  Pacific,  pp.  250,  251). 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  it; 

it  is  not  upon  him,  but  upon  the  devotion  and  skill  of 
minor  architects  and  masons,  that  the  right  execution  of 
the  plan  ultimately  depends. 

Lawes  and  Chalmers  anxiously  realized  this,  and  were 
constantly  striving  to  obtain  keen  labourers  for  their 
building.  When  plantation  development  was  in  danger 
at  first,  owing  to  the  initial  difficulty  of  obtaining  sufficient 
estate  managers  with  practical  knowledge  of  Papuan 
labour, 1  Lawes  addressed  a  letter  to  The  Times. "^  Com- 
menting upon  Sir  William  Macgregor's  report  he  em- 
phasized the  importance  of  laying  a  secure  foundation  for 
the  future  interest  of  the  Possession  upon  respect  for 
native  rights,  and  went  on  to  plead  that  as  an  inglorious 
warfare  with  the  natives  would  call  young  Englishmen  to 
arms,  so  much  the  more  should  they  come  forward  for 
"  the  more  peaceful  and  honourable  vocation  of  building 
up  a  young  nation,  of  developing  the  great  human  re- 
sources of  this  new  possession."  Officers  would  be 
needed  as  Government  control  extended,  who  would  be 
capable  of  representing  the  Christian  principle  and  the 
best  of  English  hfe  to  the  savages,  and  who,  moved  by  "  a 
nobler  ambition  than  that  of  making  money,  would  con- 
secrate their  energies  and  abilities  to  the  work  of  civilizing, 
Christianizing,  raising  and  ruling  the  nations  of  this  great 
land." 

Not  content  with  the  role  of  leaders,  the  missionaries 
helped  by  labouring  themselves  to  train  the  native  in 
industrial  and  agricultural  pursuits.  But  although  they 
were  performing  for  the  State  the  function  of  education, 
without  cost  to  it,^  they  treated  it  as  part  of  the  day's 
work,  and  there  is  as  little  reference  to  it  in  their  journals 
and  letters  as  there  is  to  their  work  of  preaching. 

1  Official  Handbook,  191 3,  p.  36, 

■  August  II,  1890,  quoted  in  Biography,  J.  King,  p.  270. 

'  Sir  W.  Macgregor.     British  New  Guinea,  etc.,  p.  92. 


ii8  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

J.  W.  Lindt,  however,  who  was  lucky  enough  to  see 
the  launch  of  the  eighteen-ton  yacht  Mary,  from  the 
Papuan  industrial  school  at  Murray  Island,  records  the 
fact  in  his  book,  adding  that  the  wood  was  cut  and  the 
building  executed  by  pupils  under  the  supervision  of 
Rev.  Samuel  Macfarlane.^  And  various  official  reports 
testify  frequently  to  the  progress  made  by  the  native. 
In  1888  the  Deputy-Commissioner  for  the  Western 
Division  reported  that  "  many  of  the  men  are  now  wilHng 
workers  in  the  beche-de-mer  fisheries."  And  the  same 
year,  another  Deputy-Commissioner,  in  emphasizing  the 
importance  of  Papuan  labour,  wrote,  "...  copra,  gum, 
and  beche-de-mer  exported  from  the  British  New  Guinea 
coast  is  all  collected  by  natives,  and  the  two  latter  articles 
are  cured  and  bagged  without  supervision  once  the 
collector  has  been  shown  the  process."  He  added  that 
the  natives  had  "  rendered  useful  and  willing  aid  to 
traders  and  visitors  in  many  ways,  such  as  boatmen  and 
woodcutters."  2 

Steady  progress  was  thus  made,  and  it  is  not  surprising 
to  see  in  the  Official  Handbook  of  1913  a  photograph 
of  a  native  driving  a  plough  tractor.^ 

There  is  much  material  not  yet  available  which  would 
help  in  determining  beyond  all  doubt  the  decisive  effect 
of  missionary  influence  in  the  development  of  British 
New  Guinea,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  full  evidence 
of  the  late  Sir  WiUiam  Macgregor  may  one  day  be 
published.  For  the  time  being  we  must  be  content  with 
the  indicating  straws  strewn  over  reports  and  journals, 
which  themselves  are  fortunately  almost  conclusive. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Administrators  hved 

1  Picturesque  Neiv  Guinea,  1887,  p.  4. 

*  PP.  1889,  c.  5620-3,  p.  50. 

3  Official  Handbook,  191 3,  p.  32a. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  119 

in  close  personal  touch  with  the  missionaries,  who  were 
not  narrow-minded,  nor  were  they  timid  in  expressing 
their  opinions,  having  a  clear  vision  of  the  goal  for  which 
they  aimed,  and  overflowing  with  the  "  energy,  earnest- 
ness, and  experience  "  ^  necessary  to  lead  others  to  it. 
And  the  Administrators  and  missionaries  were  bound 
together  by  those  strong  ties  of  sympathy  which  are 
forged  in  the  furnace  of  common  dangers  and  anxieties. 

With  no  other  knowledge  than  this,  one  might  hazard 
a  guess  that  the  missionary  influence  would  be  decisive, 
wherever  active  co-operation  existed  between  missionaries 
and  Administrators. 

But  it  is  just  upon  the  question  of  co-operation  that 
the  straws  of  evidence  available  all  point  in  the  same 
direction.  In  the  narrative  of  the  daily  work  of  admini- 
stration, the  names  of  the  missionaries  constantly  recur. 
They  were  invaluable  guides  for  journeys  into  the  interior. 
Their  advice  was  asked  upon  the  relative  value  of  different 
sites.  Their  stations  formed  the  only  link  of  communica- 
tion in  a  territory  which  was  about  eight  hundred  miles 
in  length  ;  and  they  themselves  and  their  teachers  were 
often  the  only  source  of  information.  In  translating 
the  Bible  into  native  languages,  they  compiled  much 
valuable  information  about  them ;  and  owing  to  the 
expert  knowledge  thus  acquired,  they  were  the  best 
quaUfied  for  the  post  of  official  interpreter.  As  Sir 
WiUiam  Macgregor  declared  :  "it  practically  amounts 
to  this,  that  they  are  indispensable.  It  is  not  known  to 
me  that  any  officer  that  was  responsible  for  the  well- 
being  and  development  of  a  primitive  race  ever  enter- 
tained any  other  opinion."  ^ 

Because  of  the  value  of  their  help  in  purely  admini- 

*  Sir  W.  Macgregor. 

•  British  New  Guinea,  Country  and  People^  1897,  p.  y2. 


120  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

strative  work,  and  owing  to  their  close  friendship  with 
the  Government  officers,  it  was  inevitable  that  their 
opinion  would  also  be  sought  upon  executive  problems. 

For  instance,  at  the  request  of  Sir  Peter  Scratchley, 
Lawes  wrote  a  memorandum  upon  The  Future  Relations 
of  the  Natives  and  the  White  Race,  which  put  clearly 
before  him  the  two  alternative  policies,  advocated  by 
the  missionaries  and  the  traders  respectively,  "  to  utiHze, 
encourage,  and  strengthen  all  that  is  good  and  capable 
of  improvement  in  native  hfe  and  habit,"  or  "to  put 
the  natives  on  one  side,  and  try  to  develop  the  resources 
of  the  country  according  to  our  own  ideas  without  de- 
pendence upon  the  natives  at  all."  The  first  would  be 
slow  but  promising,  and  he  saw  no  reason  why  British 
rule  should  not  become  in  New  Guinea  a  benefit  to  both 
the  native  and  the  alien  race.  The  second  might  pro- 
duce results  more  quickly,  but  these  were  unhkely  to 
be  permanent  owing  to  the  climate  and  character  of 
the  country.^ 

Presumably  Sir  Peter  Scratchley  was  including  this 
memorandum  in  his  reference  when  he  wrote  to  Lord 
Derby  that  in  considering  his  plans  for  arriving  at  and 
organizing  the  Protectorate  he  had  received  "  valuable 
and  ready  assistance  from  W.  G.  Lawes."  2 

Again,  the  private  secretary  of  Sir  William  Macgregor, 
who  watched  the  co-operation  between  his  chief  and 
James  Chalmers,  was  emphatic  in  asserting  both  its 
existence  and  the  value  of  it,  when  he  had  occasion  to 
lecture. 

^  Biography.  J.  King,  pp.  244-247.  Compare  Bacon  "  Planting  of 
countries  is  like  planting  of  Woods  ;  for  you  must  make  account,  to 
loose  almost  Twenty  yeeres  Profit  and  expect  your  Recompence,  in  the 
end.  For  the  Principall  Thing,  that  hath  beene  the  Destruction  of 
most  Plantations,  hath  beene  the  Base,  and  Hastie  dra\\'ing  of  Profit, 
in  the  first  yeeres."  •  PP.  1885,  c.  4584,  p.  95. 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  121 

"  The  aims  of  the  missionary  bodies  are  almost  identical 
with  many  of  those  of  the  Government,  and  thus  they 
work  hand  in  hand,  each  helping  each,  unity  giving 
greater  speed  to  progress,"  so  that  he  was  hopeful  of  the 
future  of  the  Papuan.^ 

Sir  WiUiam  Macgregor  unfortunately  has  passed,  but 
not  before  he  had  given  many  thankful  tributes  to 
the  aid  and  counsel  of  missionaries.  But  history  must 
regret  that  it  was  before  he  could  give  to  them  the  per- 
manent form  they  deserve,  with  a  fuller  narrative  than 
has  yet  been  written. ^ 

It  is  therefore  all  the  more  worth  recording  the  words 
of  Sir  George  Le  Hunte,  a  Hving  witness  to  the  work 
of  the  missionaries,  and  to  the  nature  of  co-operation 
which  existed  between  them  and  his  predecessor. 

"  In  New  Guinea,  as  in  several  other  parts  of  the 
Pacific,"  he  writes,  "  the  missionaries  were  the  pioneers 
of  British  administration,"  and  he  points  out  "  that 
it  was  fortunate  for  them  and  for  the  natives  that  the 
first  British  Administrator  was  a  man  of  great  power, 
abihty,  experience,  and  foresight,  the  late  Sir  William 
Macgregor,  who  had  many  years  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  work  of  the  missions  in  Fiji,  and  its  value  to  the 
Government — and  those  who  followed  him,  followed  also 
the  broad  and  wise  lines  laid  down  by  their  great 
predecessor." 

"  It  was  a  far-seeing  step  that  by  mutual  agreement 
between  him  and  the  heads  of  the  several  missions  they 
confined  their  activities  to  the  separate  divisions  of  the 
possession  where  they  had  estabUshed  themselves,  and 
friction  and  confusion,  especially  in  the  minds  of  the 

»  T.  H.  Halton-Richards,  R.C.I.,  1892-93,  vol.  xxiv.,  p.  299. 
'  "  I  could  tell  you  a  great  deal  of  what  hats  been  done  by    .    ,    , 
the  missionary  societies  in  the  Pacific,"  R.G.S.,  February  22,  1915. 


122  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

natives,  were  thus  avoided.  This  wise  arrangement  has 
been  loyally  adhered  to  by  the  societies,  and  has  f aciHtated 
both  their  work  and  that  of  the  Government." 

"  The  missions  and  the  Government  may  be  said  to 
work  hand  in  hand,  and  such  were  the  foundations  laid 
down  by  the  great  pioneers  of  both  sides  that  the  workers 
who  followed  them  have  been  able  to  carry  on  the  build- 
ing uninterruptedly,  by  mutual  effort,  and  with  ever- 
increasing  stability. 

"  The  Government,  which  is  responsible  for  the  laws  it 
makes,  and  for  seeing  them  observed,  is,  through  its 
officers,  in  close  touch  with  the  missionaries.  In  some 
cases  the  missions  have  established  themselves  first, 
and  the  Government  has  gladly  availed  itself  of  their 
work.  In  others,  where  the  Government  has  entered 
new  ground,  it  is  quickly  followed  by  the  mission  ;  and 
so,  step  by  step,  sometimes  one  and  sometimes  the 
other  leading,  the  work  goes  on  and  reUgion,  law,  order, 
and  civilization  are  in  their  several  degrees  making  pro- 
gress, and  with  wonderful  results,  as  those  who  have 
been  privileged  to  take  a  part  in  it  can  truthfully  testify." 

"The  missionary  societies  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon 
the  interests  of  the  native  and  are  prompt  to  offer  advice, 
sometimes  a  protest,  to  the  Government  in  matters  of 
legislative  or  executive  action  which  they  may  con- 
sider to  be  either  advantageous  or  detrimental  to  those 
interests.  They  are  sure  of  a  sympathetic  hearing  and 
careful  consideration . ' ' 

"  Nor  are  the  interest  of  the  white  community  dis- 
regarded. Much  has  been  effected  by  the  mission's 
influence  both  with  the  Government  and  the  whites. 
The  latter,  though  often  not  seeing  eye  to  eye  with  the 
missionary,  respect  him,  and  recognize,  though  they 
may  not  admit  it  sometimes,  that  he  is  a  force  for  peace 


BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA  123 

and  good  order,  as  well  as  for  religion,  and  in  the  main 
support  him." 

"  The  result  of  this  threefold  co-operation  has  been 
the  substantial  progress  of  church,  state,  and  commercial 
enterprise  in  this  vast  territory."  ^ 

The  matter  might  rest  there,  decided  by  the  opinion 
of  one  who  had  personal  experience  in  administering 
the  dependency,  but  it  is  impossible  to  conclude  a  sketch 
of  the  history  of  missionary  influence  in  New  Guinea 
upon  any  other  note  than  one  of  gratitude  to  an  in- 
dividual missionary. 

Because  the  missionaries  of  New  Guinea  whose  names 
have  appeared  in  this  essay  have  but  recently  passed 
from  their  field  of  action,  and  because  the  events  which 
they  faced  and  moulded  occurred  so  short  a  time  ago 
that  they  hardly  deserve  to  be  treated  as  history,  it 
is  not  possible  to  retain  anything  but  a  blurred  impres- 
sion of  their  significance  as  individuals.  But  although 
they  stand  too  close  to  be  in  focus,  there  is  one  amongst 
them,  James  Chalmers,  whose  figure  dominates  them. 

There  is  a  striking  portrait  of  him  in  Mr  Lindt's  book.* 
Between  Macfarlane  of  the  genial  smile  and  Lawes  the 
scholar,  in  truth,  in  the  words  of  Stevenson  **  he  re- 
presents the  essential."  His  eyes,  full  open  under  bold 
somewhat  bushy  brows,  gaze  commandingly  at  the 
reader,  so  that  at  the  first  glance  he  may  not  notice 
the  jolly  twinkle  lurking  within  one  of  them,  or  the 
whimsical  upward  curve  of  the  right  eyebrow,  as  if  it 
had  caught  something  of  the  unexpectedness  which  re- 
mained in  its  owner's  character  from  the  days  when  he 

*  The  writer  is  indebted  to  Sir  George  Le  Hunte,  G.C.M.G.,  who 
succeeded  Sir  William  Macgregor  in  1898,  and  was  Governor  of  the 
Territory  until  1903,  for  tliis  note  from  the  records  of  his  personal 
experience. 

»  Loc.  cit.    To  face  p.  G. 


124  BRITISH  NEW  GUINEA 

played  practical  jokes  on  his  fellow  students  at  Cheshunt 
College.  Yet  the  face,  under  careful  scrutiny,  never 
loses  the  force  of  the  first  impression  it  gave,  belonging 
to  one  who  laughs  and  jokes  from  his  strength,  and  not 
from  his  weakness.  The  masterful  poise  of  the  head, 
the  hair  brushed  back  over  the  ears  with  characteristic 
decision,  the  determined  lines  upon  the  face,  tell  at 
once  that  this  man  is  the  leader  of  the  three. 

While  Lawes  was  "  the  plodding  translator  and 
teacher,"  whose  "  great  aim  was  to  provide  as  early 
as  possible  a  translation  of  the  whole  Gospel  message," 
Chalmers  was  "  the  restless  pioneer  with  a  roving 
temperament,  wedded  to  a  crusader's  faith."  So  that 
their  meeting,  as  Lawes's  biographer  describes,  was  that 
of  "  two  streams  which  were  complementary."  ^ 

But  it  was  Lawes,  rather  than  Chalmers,  who  was 
the  tributary  joining  the  main  current.  For  missionary 
pohcy,  which  became  later  the  pohcy  of  the  Government, 
was  moulded  by  Chalmers,  and  its  ideal  was  diffused 
and  its  method  practised  more  successfully  by  him,  who 
as  its  creator  was  strangely  enough  also  its  ablest  exponent. 

While  the  natives  knew  T am  ate  as  their  Chief  and 
Peacemaker,  —  the  missionaries,  administrators,  and 
officials  all  drew  from  his  radiant  personality,  inspiration, 
energy,  and  wisdom.  Although  he  had  faults  like  other 
men — Bevan  apparently  had  a  taste  of  his  violent  temper 
— ^he  was  "  that  rarest  man  of  all,  the  man  whose  ideal 
and  method  are  neither  opposed  to  nor  separated  from 
each  other  "  ;  and  posterity  may  well  delight  to  inscribe 
high  upon  the  roll  of  colonial  statesmen  the  name  of 
James  Chalmers  as  one  who  embodied  all  that  is  finest 
in  the  missionary  spirit,  and  all  that  is  noble  in  the 
motive  of  British  Imperialism. 

1  Biography.     J.  King,  loc.  cit.,  p.  112. 


PART   III 

CONCLUSION 

In  an  essay  dealing  with  the  influence  of  the  mission- 
aries upon  British  expansion,  more  emphasis  perhaps 
might  have  been  laid  upon  how  much  they  stimulated  it. 
But  it  is  very  probable  that  even  if  the  missionaries  had 
not  opened  up  the  Pacific,  traders  would  undoubtedly 
have  done  so,  not  many  years  later  than  the  date  when 
the  process  did  in  fact  begin. 

Had  that  happened  it  can  easily  be  guessed  of  what 
nature  that  expansion  would  have  been,  and  it  is  not 
impossible  that,  in  the  absence  of  the  humanitarian  in- 
fluence of  the  British  missionaries,  the  history  of  the 
Pacific  might  have  borne  a  dreadful  similarity  to  the 
history  of  Spanish  expansion  in  Mexico  and  Peru. 

The  true  importance  of  missionary  influence  lies,  then, 
not  in  the  fact  that,  in  part,  the  missionaries  were  the 
cause  of  the  expansion,  but  in  the  character  which  they 
gave  to  it. 

This  is  brought  vividly  into  relief  by  placing  the  motives 
and  record  of  British  expansion  in  the  nineteenth  century 
against  the  background  of  the  tendencies  of  the  previous 
centuries.  But  if  the  same  method  is  applied  to  the 
history  of  German  or  French  expansion  a  similarity 
instead  of  a  contrast  is  noticed,  and  it  becomes  clear 
beyond  denial  that  the  distinctive  contribution  of  the 
British  missionaries  was  that  of  a  new  principle  to  colonial 
statesmanship. 


126  CONCLUSION 

French  expansion  during  the  nineteenth  century, 
although  in  method  it  marked  an  advance  upon  Spanish- 
Catholic  expansion  of  the  sixteenth  century  by  the 
absence  of  persecution,  belonged  to  that  period  in  its 
ideals  ;  and  the  chief  characteristic  of  French  policy  was 
the  political  value  attached  to  the  enterprise  of  French 
missionaries.  It  may  be  true  that  the  first  cause  of 
French  expansion  was  a  religious  reaction  by  the 
Catholics  to  the  report  of  Protestant  success  in  Tahiti,^ 
but  the  French  Government  was  not  laggard  in  taking 
advantage  of  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  its  subjects,  and 
had  no  intention  of  adopting  the  attitude  of  the  British 
Colonial  Office,  which  held  firmly  to  the  view  that  "  the 
hope  of  a  conversion  of  a  people  to  Christianity,  however 
specious,  must  not  be  made  a  reason  for  increasing  the 
British  dominions."  2 

Bishop  Patteson  experienced  the  political  force  behind 
the  Catholic  missionaries  in  1858,  when  he  met  Pere 
Montrouzier  in  conference  about  their  respective  policies 
and  spheres  of  influence  in  the  Loyalty  Islands,  where  the 
French  Bishop  of  New  Caledonia  had  placed  some  priests 
early  in  that  year.  Patteson  knew  at  once  that  he  and 
the  natives  were  both  in  the  Frenchman's  power,  and 
Montrouzier  knew  it  too.  "  He  let  me  see,"  Patteson 
wrote,  **  that  he  knew  he  could  force  upon  the  Lifu  people 
whatever  he  pleased,  the  French  Government  having 
promised  him  any  number  of  soldiers  he  may  send  for,  to 

1  "  Pour  remonter  aux  origines  de  I'action  catholique  en  Oceanic,  il 
sufiit  de  rappeler  le  rapport  adresse  en  1824,  par  Duperrey  au  ministre 
de  la  marine.  Get  61oge,  sans  restrictions,  des  missions  protestantes, 
eut  en  France  un  grand  retentissement,  Des  pol6miques  de  presse 
eurent  pour  effet  de  creer  un  mouvement  d'opinion  dans  le  parti 
catholique,  qui  resolut  de  prendre  sa  revanche  k  bref  d61ai."  {U Expansion 
Frangaise  dans  le  Pacifique  Sud.     Soulier- Valbert,  1911,  pp.  96,  80.) 

«  PP.  1862,  No.  2995  (quoted  by  G.  H  Scholefield  The  Pacific, 
Its  Past  and  Future,  p.  79). 


CONCLUSION  127 

take  possession,  if  necessary,  of  the  island.  They  have 
one  thousand  men  in  New  Caledonia,  steamers  and 
frigates  of  war  ;  and  he  told  me  plainly  that  this  island 
and  Nengone  are  considered  as  natural  appendages 
of  New  Caledonia,  and  practically  French  possessions 
already,  so  that,  of  course,  to  attempt  doing  more  than 
secure  for  the  people  a  religious  liberty  is  out  of  the 
question.  He  promised  me  that  if  the  people  behaved 
properly  to  him  and  his  people,  he  would  not  send  for 
the  soldiers,  nor  would  he  do  anything  to  interfere  with 
the  existing  state  of  the  island  .  .  .  but  that  if  necessary 
he  would  use  force  to  estabUsh  the  missionaries  in  houses 
in  different  parts  of  the  island,  if  the  chiefs  refused  to  sell 
them  parcels  of  land,  for  instance,  one  acre."  ^ 

The  French  policy  was  thus  something  of  an  ana- 
chronism in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  although  Stern- 
dale's  judgment  is  possibly  too  severe,  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  truth  in  the  summary  he  gives  of  the  results  of 
that  policy. 2 

"French  colonization  in  Oceania,"  he  wrote,  "...  does 
not  appear  to  have  produced  any  useful  result.  .  .  .  The 
whole  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words  :  *  Casernes, 
conciergerie,  bureau  maritime,  mission,  caf^,  salon  de 
billiard,  voila  tout.'  The  result  is  indolence,  demorali- 
zation, stagnation."  And  to  this  he  adds  a  violent 
critical  description  too  long  to  quote.^ 

The  German  ideal  also  belonged  to  the  past,  and  their 
methods  showed  less  advance  than  the  French,  being 
more  brutal.  Theirs  was  the  irreligious  commercial  ideal 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  and  the 

^  Life  of  J.  C.  Paiteson.    Charlotte  Yonge,  1874,  vol.  i.  pp.  368-69. 

*  Sterndale  Report,  loc.  cit.,  A.  3b.,  p.  18. 

3  Compare  Dilke,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  186,  187,  who  quoted  Julian  Thomas 
(a  pro-French  -witness)  that  in  New  Caledonia  the  French  had  shown 
utter  disregard  of  native  rights  and  property. 


128  CONCLUSION 

German  Government  was  not  shy  of  owning  to  it,  as  the 
records  of  negotiations  with  it  prove. 

Thus  under  date  August  9,  1884,  Lord  Granville 
writes  to  the  Foreign  Ofhce  that  the  German  Ambassador 
"  wished  to  take  steps  to  protect  more  efficiently  those 
islands  and  those  parts  of  islands  in  the  South  Sea 
Archipelago,  where  German  trade  is  largely  developed 
and  is  daily  increasing."  ^  And  Bismarck  in  conversation 
with  Meade  declared  that  "  his  system  was  to  follow 
trade,  not  to  precede  it  .  .  .  and  he  had  generally  replied 
to  a  request  for  protection  that,  where  German  trade  was 
established  in  a  place  where  there  is  no  foreign  jurisdiction 
he  would  afford  support."  ^ 

Some  evidence  of  what  he  was  supporting  has  already 
been  quoted,  and  there  is  an  elaborate  analysis  of  the 
nature  of  the  policy  of  both  the  supported  and  the 
supporter  in  the  books  of  Mr  Fletcher.^  The  immediate 
evils  resulting  were  recognized  at  once  by  those  who  held 
different  views  from  the  German  Government  of  national 
responsibility  to  the  native  races.  But  later,  the  German 
Government  itself  was  forced  to  recognize  that  Nemesis 
awaits  those  who  solve  political  problems  in  the 
counting-house. 

In  the  German  Official  Report  *  upon  German  colonies 
for  1903-4,  it  is  admitted  that,  for  that  period  the  report 
of  the  Colonial  Department  "  does  not  give  a  very  satis- 
factory account  of  the  relations  between  the  German 
authorities  and  the  natives  of  New  Guinea  and  the 
neighbouring  islands,"  and  it  instances  the  forced  with- 
drawal of  the  outlying  stations  at  Hansa  Bay,  Kaiser 

1  pp.  1885,  c.  4273.  "  pp.  1885,  c.  4290. 

^  Stevenson's  Germany  and  The  New  Pacific. 

*  Consular  Reports  (CO.),  No.  3519,  cd.  2682-44,  pp.  44-50;  ditto, 
pp.  7,  8. 


CONCLUSION  129 

Wilhelmsland,  "  owing  to  the  threatening  attitude  of  the 
inhabitants."  As  a  result,  the  account  given  of  the 
economic  development  of  German  New  Guinea  and  the 
Bismarck  Archipelago  was  "  not  very  promising,"  the 
production  of  copra  by  the  natives  having  decreased  both 
in  Samoa  and  in  New  Guinea,  and  the  production  of 
trepang  and  tortoiseshell  having  decreased  nearly  fifty 
per  cent,  as  compared  with  the  previous  year. 

So  bad  was  the  position  reached  by  the  pursuit  of  selfish 
interests  that  it  was  thought  necessary  to  own  that  "  the 
need  of  changes  in  the  method  of  administration  of  the 
German  colonies  is  generally  acknowledged,"  and  reforms 
taken  from  the  British  model  were  introduced. 

Where  France  failed  by  treating  her  missionaries  as 
political  agents,  Germany  failed  owing  to  her  neglect  of 
them,  indeed  owing  to  her  active  opposition  to  them. 
The  orders  of  Godeffroy,  whom  Bismarck  thought  worthy 
of  support,  were  quite  definite  upon  that  point.  *'  Give  no 
assistance  to  missionaries  either  by  word  or  deed  (beyond 
what  is  demanded  of  you  by  common  humanity),  but 
wheresoever  you  may  find  them,  use  your  best  influence 
with  the  natives  to  obstruct  and  exclude  them  " — thus 
Sterndale,  once  their  employee,  quotes  their  manager. 
And  he  adds  an  explanation  of  this  opposition.  ' Through- 
out the  Pacific  for  the  past  twenty-five  years  there  has 
been  a  constant  struggle  for  the  mastery  between  mis- 
sionaries and  merchants,  each  being  intensely  jealous  of 
the  influence  over  native  affairs  obtained  by  the  other. 
Merchants  make  the  greatest  profits  out  of  savages,  for 
the  reason  that  savages  are  content  to  sell  their  produce 
for  blue  beads,  tomahawks,  and  tobacco.  When  these 
savages  are  brought  under  the  influence  of  the  mis- 
sionaries they  are  instructed  to  demand  payment  in  piece 
goods  wherewith  to  clothe  themselves,  and  in  coin  for 
I 


130  CONCLUSION 

the  purpose  of  subscribing  to  the  funds  of  the  missionary 
societies.  This  reduces  the  profits  of  the  merchants,  who 
bitterly  resent  such  interference . "  ^ 

That  is  the  kernel  of  the  matter — "  the  constant  struggle 
for  the  mastery  between  missionaries  and  merchants."  It 
was  the  fight  between  the  new  ideal  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  the  old  worn-out  motive  of  the  eighteenth. 
And  upon  the  issue  of  that  fight  depended  not  only  the 
future  of  the  Pacific,  but  also  the  resurrection  of  the 
political  life  of  Western  civilization. ^ 

It  should  always  remain  a  source  of  pride  to  the  British, 
that  it  was  the  missionaries  of  their  nation  by  whom 
that  fight  was  won.^  In  the  thoughts  of  those  statesmen 
— the  title  is  fitting,  for  they  were  Empire  builders, 
although  they  built  on  strangely  new  foundations — the 

^  Sierndale  Report,  loc.  cit. 

*  Compare  Article  22  of  the  League  of  Nations  Covenant. 

"  To  those  colonies  and  territories  .  .  .  which  are  inhabited  by 
people  not  yet  able  to  stand  by  themselves  under  the  strenuous  con- 
ditions of  the  modern  world,  there  should  be  apphed  the  principle 
that  the  well-being  and  development  of  such  peoples  form  a  sacred 
trust  of  civilization." 

3  Unfortunately  it  appears  possible  that  the  successors  of  Chalmers 
and  Macgregor  may  find  themselves  engaged  in  a  struggle  against 
selfish  interests  even  more  severe  than  that  in  which  those  two 
Christian  Imperialists  fought  with  success.  For  it  is  certain  that  unless 
Christianity  can  be  infused  into  the  economic  development  of  the 
twentieth  century,  as  it  was  carried  into  the  political  development 
of  the  nineteenth  by  Williams  and  Marsden,  and  Fison  and  Chalmers, 
the  building  whose  foundations  these  missionaries  so  securely  laid 
will  never  be  completed. 

It  is  not  impossible  that  the  increasing  control  of  policy  by  the  inter- 
national financier  may  be  exercised  in  the  direction  of  exploiting  the 
Pacific  in  his  interest,  and  that  the  twentieth  century  will  see  a 
struggle  not  merely  in  the  Pacific,  but  all  over  the  world,  not  against 
"  the  merchants  "  but  against  the  financier — an  unseen  and  therefore 
a  more  dangerous  foe.  (Two  very  suggestive  books,  Economic  Democ- 
racy and  Credit  Power  and  Democracy,  by  Mr  C.  H.  Douglas,  have 
recently  been  published  by  Cecil  Palmer  upon  this  subject.) 


CONCLUSION  131 

nation  to-day  can  find  the  encouragement  and  inspiration 
of  a  noble  vision.  Although  the  missionary  societies  had 
primarily  "  to  provide  against  an  irreligious  colonization, 
against  the  importation  of  the  vices  of  a  more  cultured 
race  without  the  antidote  that  shall  sweeten  and  counter- 
act the  inevitable  tendencies  of  civiUzation,"  ^  yet  the 
leaders  were  always  ready  to  remind  the  British  people 
of  "  the  proud  and  enviable  position  which  God  had  given 
to  Great  Britain  amongst  the  nations,  and  of  the  oppor- 
tunities thereby  offered  to  it."  ^  They  did  not  oppose 
colonization,  but  rather  advocated  it  so  long  as  it  was 
"  consistent  with  wisdom  and  justice  and  conformable 
with  the  precepts  of  that  religion  which  Britain,  as  a 
nation,  professes,"  teaching  that  it  "  must  unite  the 
building  up  of  new  states  with  the  confirmation  and 
prosperity  of  one  already  built."  ^ 

Those  who  do  not  accept  the  faith  they  preached  must 
yet  acknowledge  the  worth  of  their  ideal ;  while  British 
Christians  will  wonder  joyfully  at  the  manner  in  which 
the  efforts  of  the  missionaries  vindicated  the  teaching  of 
the  Gospel,  that  a  nation  has  but  to  "  seek  first  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness,"  and  dominion 
and  wealth  will  in  good  time  be  added  to  it. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  history  of  that  period  there  were 
many  mistakes  made  by  individual  missionaries,  and  much 
neglect  of  opportunities  by  the  Government  at  home,  and 
that  the  remedies  for  the  evils  of  the  time  were  slow  in 
coming,  and  not  immediately  effective  when  they  came. 
It  is  true  indeed  that  the  practical  application  of  the 

^  Rev.  F.  Pigou  at  St  James,  Piccadilly,  Easter,  1877. 

*  Ibid,  (see  British  Museum  Library,  G.  A.  Selwyn,  4462a,  5,  1877). 

'  On  the  Britisli  Colonization  of  New  Zealand,  by  the  Committee  of 
the  Aborigines  Protection  Society,  1846,  p.  39.  (Of  the  members  of 
the  Committee  of  tha  A.P.o  m  1846  at  least  one — Rev.  John  Burnet — 
was  also  a  Director  of  the  L.M.S.) 


132  CONCLUSION 

missionary  ideal  failed  in  the  early  days  because  it  was 
premature,  and  for  the  same  reason,  perhaps,  the  nation 
awoke  but  slowly  to  an  understanding  of  the  tradition 
the  missionaries  were  building  up,  so  that  only  at  the 
close  of  the  century  did  British  administration  conform 
radically  in  its  methods  to  their  ideals. 

But  idealism  only  remains  idealism  and  retains  its  dis- 
tinctive value  so  long  as  it  is  impracticable,  and  although 
the  practical  application  of  the  missionary  principle  was 
premature,  the  worth  of  the  principle  itself  remains  un- 
altered. To  that  idealism  indeed  we  owe  the  distinctive 
character  of  British  Imperialism  to-day.  Has  there  been 
any  body  of  men  in  our  Empire's  history  from  whom  we 
have  received  a  more  glorious  inheritance  or  a  more  sacred 
trust  ? 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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1883,  c.  3641.  1888,  c.  5249-31. 

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1844. 
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